Latitude 2021

[adequate8]

2 hours ago, glimmers_of_hope said:

Does anyone know when there will be any data about whether there was an increase of covid cases due to the festival. I'm really interested to see what the results are. I would have thought it will be 5 to 10 days at least but don't know how these things work. 

None of us have been asked to provide any follow up info now we’re home from a “pilot”.

Melvin has friends in high places and that’s quite clearly why Latitude was given the go ahead

[balthazarstarbuck]

Yeah was asked to do a PCR after the last test event I went to; wasn’t this time.

I requested one anyway, which has just come back negative, so happy days. 
 

If it’s anything like the football I suspect we’ll get an idea over the weekend of there was an impact. Forgot what the download pilot findings where but that was obviously way smaller and lower prevalence.

[glimmers_of_hope]

Yeah I haven't done one or been asked to do one. I wondered if people actually get ill if they could tie it back to the event because of the names... I'm stretching here. Otherwise I think when you get a pcr test you have to say if you've been at a test event so maybe it's that

[amfy]

I got pinged and went for a PCR and did declare that I had been at a test event in the application.

It was negative.

[philipsteak]

I had all three shifts doing the covid screening in the General Campervan field (I'll get an arena shift one day, surely) and it never really got that busy. We ended up having to Hotspot people a few times to get them on the NHS app. Only had a couple of awkward customers, one a very angry woman who was pissed off she couldn't use her card as proof. Fair enough, it's about as secure as showing a negative LFT text message but they were told before (and told to screenshot the app because of the shit mobile coverage). She was genuinely furious, the kind of angry that could knock a less confident steward, but the guy she shouted at has done it for ages so wasn't bothered. "I have my card, I have cancer(!?) and I just want to get in to this fucking festival". I'm working Wilderness next which isn't a test event but is using the same system. And I'm told the mobile coverage is even worse.

The second was an old fella who'd actually been through the day before but came back to tell me that the whole thing was a scam as no one was actually checking anyone's covid status as he wasn't checked. It was all a conspiracy by the government to make it look like things were all OK. As a lowly volunteer steward (not even a supervisor this time) government conspiracies are a little above my paygrade. But then I would say that wouldn't I? He was harmless enough, and to be honest entertained me for a few minutes during a fairly dull shift. I pointed out that was literally why we were there, and offered to let him stay and watch us check people as they came through, but he seemed less bothered by this point. Especially when his wife pointed out she had been checked! So if he'd just mentioned it to her he could have saved himself the time!

[amfy]

I was really lucky with the shifts I got & I did value it. I hope you have better luck at Wilderness!

Although it can be a great gig, I do think they should give arena platform shifts to the same people all weekend. It was really noticeable that security on the arena platform had really got to know their customers and became able to meet their needs and communicate with them really well. I turned up halfway through the final shift and felt like I was miles behind where I should have been in terms of looking after people well.

[incident]

1 hour ago, philipsteak said:

I'm working Wilderness next which isn't a test event but is using the same system. And I'm told the mobile coverage is even worse.

It certainly has been, for me at least. Last time out, it wasn't even a case of "I can't get data", it was more "the network has disappeared entirely". Should be fun trying to get people through the gates..

Still, it's been confirmed that there's no night shifts again this year..

[philipsteak]

38 minutes ago, amfy said:

I was really lucky with the shifts I got & I did value it. I hope you have better luck at Wilderness!

Although it can be a great gig, I do think they should give arena platform shifts to the same people all weekend. It was really noticeable that security on the arena platform had really got to know their customers and became able to meet their needs and communicate with them really well. I turned up halfway through the final shift and felt like I was miles behind where I should have been in terms of looking after people well.

I can't complain too much, I got earlies this year and no night shift. Still, would be nice though...

I heard of a couple of friends who got Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening shifts, which if true is just brutal. 

Edited July 27, 2021 by philipsteak

[rseamer]

22 hours ago, Copperface said:

As a self confessed Plastic Mermaids nutter I've been following her in parallel with PM. Rhain (Rhian), Flo and Hester were and are the main collaborators with PM and form the backbone of the choir/backing singers that accompany PM on tour and live. Rhain normally sings the 'Saturn' intro live as well as other bits. She has a proper powerful operatic voice, diametrically opposed to what you get with Wet Leg. Think they had a song called 'Girlfriend' out last year which got wiped from everywhere (no idea why). So not actually in Plastic Mermaids but all from the IoW and work closely with them.

Yeah - there are lots of IOW connections with Wet Leg. The bass player has played with Lauran Hibberd's band (another IOW artist) before.

Considering the size, Isle of Wight is doing the business at the moment: Wet Leg, Lauran Hibberd, Plastic Mermaids, Coach Party, Roberta Fidora all doing good stuff.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Does anyone know of anyone who got COVID during or after the festival? I've got zero symptoms and taken three LFTs in three days, just to see and absolutely nothing. Which is obviously great. And I made sure that I mixed it up whilst there, just like a normal pre-pandemic event. Hugs with strangers, no social distancing, moshing with the kids in the weird DnB caravan, the lot. With the way transmission was in the UK this time last week, I was prepared for the elevated risk of contracting it but I figured I'd let the double-jab reduce the effects, if so. The only ill-effects that have been felt from the festival are to my bank account! 

I really hope that this is a good sign for festivals and other events going forward.

 

[philipsteak]

35 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Does anyone know of anyone who got COVID during or after the festival? I've got zero symptoms and taken three LFTs in three days, just to see and absolutely nothing. Which is obviously great. And I made sure that I mixed it up whilst there, just like a normal pre-pandemic event. Hugs with strangers, no social distancing, moshing with the kids in the weird DnB caravan, the lot. With the way transmission was in the UK this time last week, I was prepared for the elevated risk of contracting it but I figured I'd let the double-jab reduce the effects, if so. The only ill-effects that have been felt from the festival are to my bank account! 

I really hope that this is a good sign for festivals and other events going forward.

 

I know of one person who tested positive on the Friday and had to go home. They were devastated obviously. Not heard of anyone since. My LFT yesterday was negative 

[bethannny]

On 7/26/2021 at 4:35 PM, Homer said:

Sounds much better than watching him sing his 'own' sh1t songs! What did he do? Am guessing the Foo Fighters was in there?

No Foo Fighters (that I remember!) but we got a fun version of Get Lucky (sound of the summer, I'm telling you), Rick doing the drums to to Highway to Hell and a song that involved splitting the crowd in half to sing 'Monkey Sh1t, Gravel Dirt' - continued to sing that all weekend. 

On stage he's a thoroughly charming and funny bloke - the worst thing about him is definitely his own songs!

[evannn]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Does anyone know of anyone who got COVID during or after the festival? I've got zero symptoms and taken three LFTs in three days, just to see and absolutely nothing. Which is obviously great. And I made sure that I mixed it up whilst there, just like a normal pre-pandemic event. Hugs with strangers, no social distancing, moshing with the kids in the weird DnB caravan, the lot. With the way transmission was in the UK this time last week, I was prepared for the elevated risk of contracting it but I figured I'd let the double-jab reduce the effects, if so. The only ill-effects that have been felt from the festival are to my bank account! 

I really hope that this is a good sign for festivals and other events going forward.

 

A friend of mine had a (faint line) positive LFT yesterday morning, awaiting PCR results. A few others of our group, myself and partner included, have been pinged but LFTs all negative thus far

[sam1981]

On another very important subject, when did the 'LATITUDE' sign get removed from outside the BBC Sounds tent?? My son made a beeline for it on Thursday and was gutted he couldn't climb it! 🙈

[Chapple12345]

I'm testing every couple of days but both negative so far and everyone I went with is too, hoping it'll stay that way!! I won't drop my guard but if we make it it the weekend without anything I might leave it then as it'll be close enough to the 10 days 

[gfa]

6 hours ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Does anyone know of anyone who got COVID during or after the festival? I've got zero symptoms and taken three LFTs in three days, just to see and absolutely nothing. Which is obviously great. And I made sure that I mixed it up whilst there, just like a normal pre-pandemic event. Hugs with strangers, no social distancing, moshing with the kids in the weird DnB caravan, the lot. With the way transmission was in the UK this time last week, I was prepared for the elevated risk of contracting it but I figured I'd let the double-jab reduce the effects, if so. The only ill-effects that have been felt from the festival are to my bank account! 

I really hope that this is a good sign for festivals and other events going forward.

 

Positive here, seems i was the one who gave it to my group from the festival as well since my symptons seem to be a bit ahead. I'm 20 and have had one dose so not particularly worried and will be fine but its a bit boring. Glad to get it over with though, I have Boardmasters then Reading just 8 or 9 days after, so if I got it at boardies i'd have had to of sold my reading tickets. Not heard of anyone else.

Definitely is looking good at the moment corona wise, and it was a fantastic weekend - more than worth it!

[Miyn]

Got back about 6.30pm on the Monday evening and have managed to get my thoughts together about the weekend at my first Latitude. This is going to be a very long post, but if you’re on these forums after the event has ended you might be interested in reading it.

Covid replacements were going to be inevitable but frustrating nonetheless, Arlo Parks, Fontaines and my beloved PVA were sorely missed. However, one replacement that did work in my favour was Sports Team over Alfie Templeman. They were great, and I managed to get front of the barrier about 6 people to the left, their crowd was fairly sparse though, but I thought they were great and deserved a bigger one. They’re probably more suited to a set on the Sounds stage though really.

I thought the demographic was a lot different than I expected, maybe because there was people who wouldn’t normally go but just went because it was an actual festival. I expected younger children and families. They were there though, at sets like Rick Astley and Kaiser Chiefs but a lot of the sets I caught there weren’t many family wristbands that I could see in the crowd. This was partly due to Amy Lawn’s comment that goes along the lines of: Middle class, white parents bringing their young children, Maisie and Ollie and going to get pissed in a field while watching socially liberal comedians and complaining they pay far too much tax. I’m sure that was there but it wasn’t in your face really and didn’t seem to make a huge amount of the demographic up.

In a way it does feel like two different festivals. I think dentalplan put it best, “Main stage for the norms, the others for the nerds”. Walking to see Bastille after Shame had finished felt really odd and it’s surprising that a festival of this size books acts this varied in style. It really is an eclectic line-up that you don’t really get at most festivals except Glastonbury.

It felt so surreal to be back at a festival watching live music in a field. The atmosphere was good, and all the acts felt the same way as the punters of being back to live music.

It was never going to be as good as Glastonbury but it was still a fantastic weekend. If there’s a spectrum of site, Glastonbury would be the pinnacle of the site, as in I’d still go without any music whatsoever it’s that good. And Leeds being the other side, site is nothing to write home about, I’d only go if I really liked what was on offer musically. Latitude sits comfortably in the middle. The site is pretty picturesque and it’s laid out nicely and there’s lots of nicely designed areas to have a chill in and explore. A bonus compared to Glastonbury is the distance between stages, a five minute walk from Obelisk to the Sounds test feels a lot nicer than the 15 minute race between the Other and the Pyramid at peak times.

The food offerings were also great as well. There were two stalls, Paellaria and Maes Mac that I enjoyed at Glastonbury and I was glad they were there as their food was still fantastic. Due to a recommendation on here I tried Curry on Naanstop and the Samosa Chaat that they served and it was so good that I came back the next day for another round which they recognized me from. It also didn’t seem to have much of a queue which was great as some food stalls seemed to have 30 minute+ queues at peak times. Also from recommendations on here I tried Happy Maki. I’d compare it to Kendrick Lamar’s music. It is widely liked and has mass of acclaim, heard queues of over 45 minutes at some points, but no matter how much I consume, I’m never going to be a fan of it. It just wasn’t really for me, but I’m happy for those who can get so much joy from it. I also got a free portion of churros from a stall near the Sounds tent as they were closing up and were giving away the last remaining few to people who ventured near their stall.

I watched a couple of hours total of Comedy over the weekend and watched a bit of Katherine Ryan’s set before I headed off to Holly Humberstone who was very enjoyable. However, I did not realise how packed the tent would be. We’d got there early as my mate wanted to get a decent spot inside the tent to watch her. We were about half way into the tent under the canopy and man it was a mission getting out. There was barely any space and people were mostly sat down with crossed legs which made it super hard to navigate a way out. So if a slightly sunburnt 16 year old wearing a white t-shirt pissed you off by trying to get out of the Comedy tent midway through a set, I apologise. I did end up saying sorry about a dozen times leaving the tent but I felt like a bit of an arse for getting in peoples way.

It’s a long drive from Manchester though, over 6 hours without including breaks, however the journey back wasn’t bad at all and hardly experienced any traffic getting back except a little bit in the surrounding village. I’m pretty tall and my legs are fairly long and didn’t enjoy being cooped up in the middle seat in the back of the car. But it was all worth it as the weekend was fantastic.

I couldn’t get a drop of signal for data throughout the entire festival so hadn’t seen the changes to the schedule on my phone. Due to this, I left The Snuts about 20 minutes into their set to get a good spot for PVA, a band that was on my must see list. I arrived to an almost empty Alcove tent and could have gotten the best view in the house if I’d have wanted though. But to the side of the tent I noticed there was a laminated piece of A4 paper that listed the set times for the acts that day. Out of curiosity I went over and had a look. There was every act on there, except PVA who seemed to have been replaced by another act. I got my mate who could get some signal to check their Twitter / Facebook to see what had happened and we found out about 10 minutes before they were supposed to be on, that they’d dropped out and were no longer playing. It was also then that I found out that Arlo Parks and Fontaines were also no longer playing. I then get a text from my dad that he’d seen that PVA were no longer listed on the schedule but he hadn’t found out that others had dropped out. But due to the ropey signal, the message came too late. Snuts had already been left and excitement had already risen. To put it in the words that I used there, I was ‘thoroughly fucked off’.

But Squid and Wolf Alice made up for it later in the day. Squid weren’t the first act that I’d seen post Covid, but in a way it felt like it. It felt like one of the first ‘proper’ gigs back, as I stood pretty distant to people for most of the acts before. I was right in the pit for their whole set and got their about 20 minutes before they were on. Their set was one of the first moments it felt so good to be back to live music. Both them and their fans have so much energy and it felt amazing to be back in a warm and sweaty tent with other people shouting words like ‘Houseplants’ at the top of my lungs. Their record that they released earlier this year is fantastic and will probably be in my top 10 of this year. The song ‘Pamphlets’ was an amazing highlight and is my favourite song of theirs so I’m glad they played it as it was great.

I didn’t manage to get into the tent for Wet Leg, even though I arrived about 10 minutes before they were due on so had to watch it on the hill at the back of the Alcove. There were metal barriers at the back of the hill and it seemed as though possibly seconds before I got to the hill, people had broken them down and ran into the tent. There was a security member watching people with eagle eyes making sure no-one made a run for it though. You could tell a few people on the hill were contemplating breaking the barrier down once more when the security wasn’t looking, but nothing came of it. Shortly after about three more security arrived which ensured no one else was getting in. The atmosphere inside the tent seemed awesome and was still pretty good on the hill and when Chaise Longue came on it definitely became more alive. I’m slightly annoyed that I didn’t make it in the tent but they’re supporting Inhaler on the UK tour so I’ll be able to catch them there.

Wolf Alice and Chemical Brothers were also great, however, I’d like to register a formal complaint with either of the brothers about the removal of No Geography and Go from the set list as they are favourites of mine. Even worse than removing it from the set list, some would argue, is teasing both songs. They played a bit of Go before they cut it short and they played the intro to No Geography, you know, the ‘him, her and them too’, bit. I was mildly frustrated when neither song was fully finished, but other than that, their set was great. I’m also thankful of Wolf Alice for playing Silk which they sometimes leave of their set lists for no apparent reason as it is a fantastic song!

My highlight of the weekend has to be Shame. I managed to get the front of the side barrier on the left side of the tent and they opened on my favourite song of theirs, Born in Luton and it was an amazing moment to watch. They have an amazing amount of energy and their guitarist must have run about a kilometre during their set. I couldn’t see but apparently the tent was only about a third full from what I’ve heard, probably due to being on at the same time as Bombay Bicycle Club. Even though their crowd was small, they played like it was their last gig ever and if I didn’t hate the phrase I’d say that the dial was on 11 for the entirety of the set. I like how they said that they were going to play a new one before breaking into One Rizla, their most played song on Spotify. The lead singer also came down to the front of the crowd and crowd surfed during a song which was great and he was right over my head at one point. Station Wagon was also a perfect last song and was the end to a great set. They were definitely the highlight of my weekend.

My top five sets are:

1. Shame

2. Squid

3. The Chemical Brothers

4. Wolf Alice

5. Sports Team

So, will I return again? Well, if the line-up is half decent and my parents are up for the 6 hour drive from Manchester? Yes. I’ve got Glastonbury next year but if I want to do another festival I don’t think there is another festival that has as good as the combination of things that Latitude has, except Glastonbury of course. It has great food options, much better compared to the depressing vegetarian burrito I had at Leeds in 2019. If this festival can turn people vegan, that burrito can turn people into eating solely meat for the entire weekend. It’s a nice site and isn’t too far to walk between stages which is good if your Benny Hanna-ing it for the weekend. The music and comedy is also diverse enough to satisfy all of our group. Enough alternative stuff to keep some of our group interested for a weekend, and enough mainstream music and comedy to keep the rest of our group interested.

The toilets in general camping were also not the greatest at times, they were long drops, smelt a fair bit and there were a lot of Bart Simpson drawings that could be down to a particular poster on here. The ground also seemed rock hard and it was a struggle to get tent pegs in without a mallet. I think I’ll go for family camping next time as the facilities seemed a lot better there.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend.

[Sean1234321]

I've seen Shame many times, from when they first started out in tiny venues to seeing them play some large festival slots and they never fail to put on a great show. 

Charlie Steen is an amazing frontman...it would be easy to dismiss him at-a-glance as another shouty angry young man, but he's a great wordsmith and a fantastic artist all round who excels at engaging with the crowd. 

I think his career will be very interesting over the years. 

[theesundayroast]

1 hour ago, Sean1234321 said:

I've seen Shame many times, from when they first started out in tiny venues to seeing them play some large festival slots and they never fail to put on a great show. 

Charlie Steen is an amazing frontman...it would be easy to dismiss him at-a-glance as another shouty angry young man, but he's a great wordsmith and a fantastic artist all round who excels at engaging with the crowd. 

I think his career will be very interesting over the years. 

I think you only have to hear the stark jump in quality from their first to second record to see they might really be onto something special in the future. Snow day has slowly become one of my favorite songs since release, absolute masterpiece both sonically and lyrically.

[theesundayroast]

2 hours ago, big hog said:

Great as the Shame set was (though I missed the first half where I feel like they played a lot of their more interesting songs), I think the best Charlie Steen moment was his appearance with Lynks on the main stage. Doing the dance moves and everything.

I was unaware that he had recently featured on a song with Lynks so this was a brilliantly bizarre moment for me. I only went to see him after he came on to a song with Frank Carter at Download so had no idea what to expect. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing though and the late night set was just a bonus!

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

4 hours ago, big hog said:

Great as the Shame set was (though I missed the first half where I feel like they played a lot of their more interesting songs), I think the best Charlie Steen moment was his appearance with Lynks on the main stage. Doing the dance moves and everything.

I think Lynks has a big future. Loads of fun.

[harryy]

2 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

I think Lynks has a big future. Loads of fun.

personally haven't been able to stop listening since the main stage and subsequent forest set. loved Charlie's appearance and really made me love how he embraced the queerness of it all! great craic. love love love and cannot wait to see more from lynks.

[efcfanwirral]

A quick search for "Latitude covid" on twitter doesn't make for good reading. Hope they're anecdotal and rare but it sounds like whole groups are coming down with it

I'm more worried about the optics...

Edited July 29, 2021 by efcfanwirral

[curlyjake]

3 of our group have tested positive in the past few days and absolutely floored by it. Felt Tuesday evening it was coming not just festival blues, but only got the positive result this morning. All had 1 dose of the vaccine and all feeling utterly horrendous. 
 

Been wanting to add to everyone’s reflections of a magical weekend back to what we love but struggling to see past the brain fog or look at a screen for too long. Echo people’s comment on general camping being shafted but that’s the only downer even with testing positive. Knew what we were signing up for, Don’t regret attending for one second had the time of our lives just hoping this passes sooner rather than later 

[Chapple12345]

40 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

A quick search for "Latitude covid" on twitter doesn't make for good reading. Hope they're anecdotal and rare but it sounds like whole groups are coming down with it

I'm more worried about the optics...

I've seen a lot more hearsay than anything else, along the lines of the individuals friends sisters son catching it there or something similar. The main issue is you'll only really hear from the people who might have caught it as opposed to those who didn't, everyone who I went with has tested since we left and have been negative so far. I suppose if anything major comes out of if they can argue it was a research event and that was its purpose