Latitude

Went to Latitude Music Festival for the day yesterday www.latitudefestival.com It was really good. It is much more about the Arts as a whole and not just a festival for music with a few extras thrown in. There were 4 music stages/tents, as well as a Theatre Arena, a Comedy Arena, Poetry Arena, Literary Arena, Music and Film Arena, Cabaret Arena and Live Arts Arena.

It was the first one of this Festival and although it had not sold out there were enough people to give it a good vibe. There were loads of nice little touches such as picnic tables and bridges and toilets all painted green with white flowers so the whole places looked really nice (granted we only went for the first day, before things had a chance to be puked on etc). They had even sprayed the sheep in the field you walk through to get to the tents red, green or yellow!

We saw some good bands - Snow Patrol were the headline act and they were really good, although I couldn't see much when they were on. We also saw the Lemonheads, the Crimea and Cord - who were all good, although Cord were quite ordinary. The lead singer of the Crimea started the set by stumbling his way into the audience with his microphone and stand and stood among us for the first song. He looked absolutely wasted but put on a good show.

We also sat in on most of a play in the theatre tent - a really endearing little play with one actor and 2 guys in guitars who seemed to be strumming quietly over the top of a CD soundtrack - that was a bit strange but the actor was good and we got badges at the end which said 'I have more trees to climb' which made me happy.

Simon Evans performed in the Comedy Arena and then again alongside some guy off the TV (can't remember his name) and 2 others in a kind of 'Have I got News for you' thing in the Literary tent - very funny.

The Poetry tent was really good (expect that it seemd to have loads of beetles and spiders in it that crawled on you when you were sat on the ground trying to listen!) - it was great to hear some quality poetry and see it performed well. I used to write a lot of poetry but haven't written much lately - it's inspired me to have another go. I may even post some on here. We spent quite a lot of time in there and saw Saul Williams and lots of other equally good performers. One guy did a poem about how much he hates Victoria Beckham which had some comedy lines:-

"Little girls want to be her and she just lets them
No, there's no one I hate more than Victoria Beckham"

and

"I'd like to get her on the playstation and beat her up on Tekken
No, there's no one I hate more than Victoria Beckham"

We also saw Howard Marks, who was actually quite an engaging bloke had some interesting things to say.

All in all a really good day out and well worth the £40 day ticket. I reckon we might go for the whole weekend next year.