Yeah, Latitude!

Oh, hi!

I have just got back from one of the best weekends of my short life thus far, courtesy of Latitude festival. After hearing great things about it from a trusted friend, and seeing the rather impressive lineup, the sis & I decided it was about time we branched out from our standard Leeds Festival endeavour. An excellent decision, for it was quite the lovely experience – you would never see pastel coloured sheep, lake projections and ostrich burgers at a Reading Weekend, would you, now?

Another massive difference we noticed is the atendees haven't all just got their A-Level results, there were in fact lots of babies 'n' bald spots alongside the expected youngsters. It is undeniably the most middle class thing ever, but in a good way – the place was teeming with good quality Vegan/ Vegetarian/ Organic foodstuffs and lots of posh children, inexplicably playing with Victorian toys.

Moving swiftyly on to what the whole event was about – the wonderful bands! Off the top of my head, here are a few of who we went to see... Yeasayer, Girls, The Maccabees, Laura Marling, Grizzly Bear, These New Puritans, Belle & Sebastian, Wild Beasts, Frightened Rabbit... and many more. Oh, and bloody TOM JONES, a surprise addition to the lineup, bless him.

 For me, the best band of the whole weekend has to be Belle & Sebastian, whom I've loved with varying intensities for over half a decade now but never got to see! The very lovely, very Scottish Stuart Murdoch was absoloutely in his element, dancing around with vigour and at one point declaring 'I was on the verge of whipping my top off there... but then I realised it would be like seeing your dad in the shower!' And of course, Grizzly Bear – the last band of the weekend – were on top form as always... my mind still boggles over how fully grown men can have such high angelic voices?

Now, as some of you may know, I've always had a massive soft spot for Jarvis Cocker. So imagine my extreme joy when I'm happily pottering over the bridge when, out of the corner of my eye, I see this tall, bespectacled gentleman walking – nay, sashaying – right past me. My official line on the matter is I didn't want to bother him as he was with his kids, but in reality I turned into a bumbling, incoherent mess of a lady upon sighting. Starstruck is the term I'm searching for, I reckon. So instead I merely grabbed Laura's arm and hissed 'That was Jarvis Cocker!', and will forever regret my inability to grow a pair. Ah well. Later that day, we bumped into Will from The Inbetweeners, who was extremely polite and exactly the same as his character, but still, he's no Jarv.

Last but not least, no festival report would be complete without a quick little bitch about the toilets, which would more aptly be decribed as 'troughs'. They did, however, provide one of the funniest moments of the weekend – Lo happily wandered into a toilet, and only as she went to leave did she notice smears and handprints of... well, frankly, human shit... all over the walls. I think we laughed solidly for about an hour after that traumatic little event. So there you have it, we absoloutely adored Latitude. My apologies for finishing on such a bum note (pun intended).

P.s. I didn't bring my digital camera with me (I'm far too careless!) so these are just pilfered off Facebook... though I did bring my Action Sampler with me, so you can wait with baited breath to see those in the near future!