latitude 2023

[Glasto Weatherwatch]

6 hours ago, LowerMead said:

Complete carnage on arrival - family campervans was totally full, oversold IMHO. The staff who were doing their best to find us space were in effect completely helpless - only one of them had a radio and his battery had long gone flat.

 

My experience wasn’t comparable to that - sounds terrible - but I thought the same was true in family camping. We arrived 7pm Thursday and must have asked four or five different stewards where was best to camp. No one had any idea, it was clear they weren’t in contact with one another. One tried to direct us to Pink Moon despite that being a separate pre erected camping area. 
 

We eventually found space all the way over near the main arena entrance which was a long trek from the car parks with kids in tow thanks to some other campers overhearing our conversation, but that was 30 mins from the car so also found the marketing of the ‘family car parking’ a bit misleading. 
 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Glasto Weatherwatch

[Paul ™]

2 hours ago, Glasto Weatherwatch said:

My experience wasn’t comparable to that - sounds terrible - but I thought the same was true in family camping. We arrived 7pm Thursday and must have asked four or five different stewards where was best to camp. No one had any idea, it was clear they weren’t in contact with one another. One tried to direct us to Pink Moon despite that being a separate pre erected camping area. 
 

We eventually found space all the way over near the main arena entrance which was a long trek from the car parks with kids in tow thanks to some other campers overhearing our conversation, but that was 30 mins from the car so also found the marketing of the ‘family car parking’ a bit misleading. 
 

 

There was plenty space nearer too, around the area of Fire Tower 7 in Family Camping I 

[rseamer]

4 hours ago, chrisplowman said:

Last year. Can’t remember the numbers but they had a study that claimed that their impact was no better or worse than recyclable cups. 

Ah shame. Even if there was no better or worse impact I just liked bringing one from my collection to drink from all weekend - they were sturdier. 

[jenko]

Wow just seen next year's prices. £589 for two standard tickets. Just checked this year's email confirmation and paid £422 for the same. They were bought in Novemeber after initial lineup release so they weren't some sort of pre-sale although it looks like we got a !0% Barclaycard discount.

I really like the festivalot but sure that a near 40% hike can be justified.

[ianlash]

1 minute ago, jenko said:

Wow just seen next year's prices. £589 for two standard tickets. Just checked this year's email confirmation and paid £422 for the same. They were bought in Novemeber after initial lineup release so they weren't some sort of pre-sale although it looks like we got a !0% Barclaycard discount.

I really like the festivalot but sure that a near 40% hike can be justified.

I paid £290 including booking fee in June. 

[jenko]

5 minutes ago, ianlash said:

I paid £290 including booking fee in June. 

Just checked and it looks like I paid Price Level 1 with Barclaycard discount according to the confirmation email, so sounds like that was as cheap as it got. Slightly odd that this was still going after the headliners had been annouced.

[xxialac]

Those new prices are a joke. Rip off Great Britain.

[ianlash]

11 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Those new prices are a joke. Rip off Great Britain.

I’m not defending them, but it has gone up by £5 from what I paid in June. They aren’t saying there is a special early booking discount at the moment so £5 seems very good considering inflation. 

[Bennykill]

This was my first Latitude since 2015. I had a brilliant time.  And as a festival there are some great things about it. Good line up, never feels too busy, friendly staff and other people.  but a lot has gone changed since i last went and not all for the better. It is startling how much more corporate it is. It never used to feel quite as bad, but this year it all felt overwhelming. The toilets while always clean were too few and far between, especially in camping. And the camping was an absolute shambles. No organisation, not enough walkways though the campsites so no easy access in or out and a 30 minute walk to the arena from Green camping is bonkers. The chair brigade seems to have increased a lot and a few flag w*nkers starting to appear is always a bad sign. The things that the festival do well it does really well but I’m not sure the price hike is worth it. It would have to be a pretty special line up to get me back as there are many other festivals that do the good as well as they do. 

[xxialac]

9 hours ago, ianlash said:

I’m not defending them, but it has gone up by £5 from what I paid in June. They aren’t saying there is a special early booking discount at the moment so £5 seems very good considering inflation. 

Pretty much every multi day festival I can think of sells lower price tickets earlier and higher price tickets later on as it’s a system that is proven to work. So very odd if they stopped doing this.

And fact remains the cheapest tickets are massively more expensive (much more than inflation) than last year.

[**claire**]

I think if we decide to go next year I'll hold out to see if they do the same Barclaycard discount later in the year...

Had a good time this year, however the family camping toilet situation on the Thursday was ridiculous - only urinals available in the family camping area for a large part of the day & evening & the poor stewards could only suggest walking all the way back to the arena if we needed to use the ladies toilets or the kids needed to go... they don't normally provide that much notice at 4 years old!  And often over the weekend the water pressure was so bad there was no running water at least at our nearest toilets in the family CV field for the same reason in the mornings when everyone was using the toilets & wanting to brush their teeth etc...

One thing I really think they could do with is introducing charity lock ups like they do at Glastonbury - it's such a long walk back to the tent for changes of clothes in bad weather for example or you have to lug a load of stuff around with you all day.

Young Fathers were SO GOOD! Those plus Pulp & Confidence Man were probably my music highlights, plus Laura Smyth in the comedy arena. But the chairs set up for the day (mostly empty) in there under the tent were ridiculous!

[chrisplowman]

If you aren't buying your tickets early with some kind of Barclaycard promo then get them from Colchester Arts Centre when they are released. They charge £5 in fees rather than Ticketmaster's £30.

[LowerMead]

On 7/26/2023 at 1:28 PM, chrisplowman said:

If you aren't buying your tickets early with some kind of Barclaycard promo then get them from Colchester Arts Centre when they are released. They charge £5 in fees rather than Ticketmaster's £30.

Good to know - is that for online bookings too? 

[LowerMead]

On 7/26/2023 at 9:44 AM, **claire** said:

I think if we decide to go next year I'll hold out to see if they do the same Barclaycard discount later in the year...

Had a good time this year, however the family camping toilet situation on the Thursday was ridiculous - only urinals available in the family camping area for a large part of the day & evening & the poor stewards could only suggest walking all the way back to the arena if we needed to use the ladies toilets or the kids needed to go... they don't normally provide that much notice at 4 years old!  And often over the weekend the water pressure was so bad there was no running water at least at our nearest toilets in the family CV field for the same reason in the mornings when everyone was using the toilets & wanting to brush their teeth etc...

One thing I really think they could do with is introducing charity lock ups like they do at Glastonbury - it's such a long walk back to the tent for changes of clothes in bad weather for example or you have to lug a load of stuff around with you all day.

Young Fathers were SO GOOD! Those plus Pulp & Confidence Man were probably my music highlights, plus Laura Smyth in the comedy arena. But the chairs set up for the day (mostly empty) in there under the tent were ridiculous!

Agree with all of this. Most of Latitude is really well organised, but my arrival experiences in my post above (which I think are down to a significant increase in numbers since we last came in 2017) are down to them pinching on budget wherever they can. Festival Republic screw costs down to the bone wherever they can - which is of course good business sense (otherwise it just gets passed on to punters in increased ticket prices) but you would hope they would get the basics right. 

As a family with a youngster we have long since ditched reliance on any festival campsite loos, a PortaPotti and a toilet tent are a gamechanger.  Yes, you have to carry it and empty it, but it removes the distance/unavailability factor once you get there.  

 

[chrisplowman]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:39 AM, LowerMead said:

Good to know - is that for online bookings too? 

Yep

[chuckles07]

On 7/25/2023 at 11:05 AM, LowerMead said:

and I met some lovely staff, including one really kind Oxfam volunteer lady who accompanied me into the festival site at 1am without a wristband on arrival night just so we could get some water.  She was a bit of a superstar dealing with loads of annoyed people.

Well you have just made a certain lady cry, in a good way, having read this. Mrs Chuckles did the deed you mention.  And she says you were lovely about the mess you were faced with as well.  Wish more people had your approach……. Thank you.