Latitude - Henham Park, Suffolk - 12-15/7/07
5/5
By: Christiana Spens
So, I meet Dora at Liverpool Street Station having already bought my ticket, lost my ticket, found my ticket, and sipped on a cappuccino. Dora's also late, but eventually we struggle like the girls we are to the train and find two seats and dump all our bags and stuff and finally sit down. It's 10.30 am. And I need a drink already.
Usually vodka at this time would be a bit wrong, but it's a Festival Weekend so it doesn't matter. I buy a cute little bottle of Smirnoff and some diet coke. Dora buys crisps, and we get excited about Latitude. Some time later we set eyes on our new home: the grass is dry, the sky sublime, and we find a little place near a Che Quevara flag to pitch our tent.
Only we can't pitch our tent. It's not actually our tent - it's a tent borrowed from my nice boss - so neither of us know what it's meant to look like, and there are no convenient pictures or instructions.
Luckily there are some boys from Sheffield nearby so we ask them to help us. Dora doesn't want to have to give up, but it's been an hour and the tent is still just some fabric on the ground.
The boys from Sheffield are really good at putting up tents, and it's not long before we have a new home, which we quickly leave in pursuit of music and magic.
We buy sangria and walk around in the sunshine. We see the coloured sheep in the field and the boats on the lake, the Comedy Tent, the Literary Tent, the Beer Tent... After a bit we go to see our sister label Transgressive Records' own Jeremy Warmsley play in a tent in the woods. We love him, and his band - Matt Ingram, Tom Rogerson and Seye Adelekan. And that picture of him makes us smile. We sit enraptured and entertained, smoking, talking, swept away by the songs.
After all this lovely stuff we go back across the lake and meet people under a big tree, drink cider and talk about literature and London, before straying off to get more cider and watch CSS and get lost in the middle of the crowds, absorbed into an atmosphere something like a Brazilian carnival crossed with a summer's day in Green Park. Spirits are high, Dora nicks a cowboy hat from some guy and we dance around under blue skies. Lovefoxx is wearing a pink jumpsuit, they work wonders, and it seems unnecessary to remember more than that.
But I'm more excited about The Good, the Bad & the Queen, who are on after CSS just as dusk descends on Henham Park. We move to the front and Dora's a bit fatigued. She rests on my shoulder while the band take their time... Eventually the stage is shrouded in blue and men in top hats and trilbies with cigarettes saunter into view and set a tone all melancholic and magical as the festival dusk. Their set is languorous and sublime, blasé and beautiful. The images projected onto the stage set and the general dark blue tone casts Victorian airs over the performance, entrancing and addictive, as if the band have just floated out of an opium den or a dusky blues joint.
We later stray into Rodrigo Y Gabriella who are excellent, and then wander into the wild woods and dance in a little party for a bit, then wander to another part of the woods and meet some boys from Wales who let us share their cigarettes and their daze. We watch the branches dance a nocturne, sitting in a row on the ground. They're nice boys. When they go off to dance wander off aimlessly.
We meet another group of boys and sit with them and they let us smoke their cigarettes too. They're from Sheffield and I'm talking to one guy, and he says, "Yeah we're seeing the Wild Beasts - [can't remember his name] is the drummer," and I say, "Wow that's such a coincidence - the guys who put up our tent know the Wild Beasts as well..."
They give me a look, then one guy says: "WE put up your tent."
"Oh."
Awkward situation, for a minute anyway... I apologize but the damage is done, for a minute anyway.
We talk about Hunter Thompson and share more cigarettes and look at the trees, talking about the colour of the sky and how cool it would be to put hammocks in all the trees and live in Latitude forever and ever.
Dora disappears and after all the cigarettes are finished we go to the Literary Tent because I remember I arranged to meet a fellow there, and the boys are happy enough to follow. We get hot chocolates and teas and find the Literary Tent contains many, many people. We're not really there for the stories actually, just want to say hi, so we tread carefully through the people sitting down and say hi to Simon the Publisher. He smiles and says "Shhhhhhhh" because we're not meant to be talking, and then we leave. We walk back across the lake and into the campsite and try to find the Che Quevara flag, but it takes a while and the campsite now looks like the Yorkshire Moors because of the mist and darkness.
Sunday is burger and a cider for breakfast day, and we hang around in the sunshine for a while before going Speed Dating randomly. It's not really Speed Dating though, because there are only two guys there, but they say that's fine and we sit down at little tables and get asked pointless questions and stare into each other's eyes. Dora sits in a corner for a while, meditating.
The Speed Dater (don't know his name) is wearing a cute necklace with a pink heart that says "Love Bug" and I tell him I like it. He says, "It's really special to me, but I want to give it to you. But only if you meet me at 1.30am by the Big Blue Elephant," staring deep into my eyes so I'm like, "Yeah, sure, definitely,"
"Do you promise?"
"Sure."
Sadly I can't find a Big Blue Elephant anywhere that night. The necklace is awesome though.
After that we get our tarot cards read. I get the Lovers, the Sun, the High Priestess, the Emperor and the Fool (Moi?) This means I'm going to fall in love, be successful and get high apparently. Also I'm told to "Watch out for the Law".
We listen to some random band in a random tent and then Dora and I meet Matt near the crepe van, who is drinking lots of water this morning. Dora and Matt are both Catholic (I'm just lapsed) so they talk about Catholic School together which is sweet. I realize they look like each other but they don't agree with me about that. Matt's wearing a straw hat and a wife-beater and Dora's wearing the straw hat she nicked during CSS yesterday and I'm wearing a black trilby I just bought. Matt says it's all about the hats.
After much cider and banter we go to the theatre and see one play I really like and one I really don't.
Subsequently, it's off to The Rapture who are sunny though we're not paying that much attention I must confess. We meet more people, who all seem to know Matt, and then get some food. I have a food fight with Luke the Drummer and get smeared with chocolate sauce. I make sure Luke gets covered in it too.
Arcade Fire are amazing. We drink, we dance, we smoke, we sing... It's beautiful. and for a moment it rains and then stops exactly when Win Butler prays to God to stop it raining. I'm not sure exactly what he did, or said, but it worked. Should have made a note of it - could come in useful for upcoming festivals... There are fireworks and more dancing and everyone's happy, and then it was over. Just like that. Which seems unfair, somehow.
Backstage. I talk to an Irish actor and we chill out at the Pink Flamingo on pink chairs and under a disco ball. Before Dora gets back I chat with Elmo about hallucinogenics and films and stuff, and we notice the weird scene we're on the edge of: burlesque people, a girl dressed as a cat, another as a sort of sexy version of the bunny from Donnie Darko, dancing together with a weird short Chinese belly dancer who really annoyed us.
Luke the drummer and I went on another little walk in the woods, got a bit lost, and I got nettle stings from rolling around. We talked and Dora danced, the cider was chemical-tasting by this stage so I drank vodka instead, and we talked and we danced, and we drank, and we smoked, and we danced and...
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment