Latitude Festival: A Preview

Everywhere you look, the wellies are discounted, the tents are 2 for 1, and hair and make-up accessories are looking a product of Madonna and David Bowie’s illegitimate love child. What does this all mean? Festival season is upon us.

The official kick-off to festival season is Glastonbury which begins this weekend. Attended by celebrities of the highest caliber and with attendees wearing only one brand of wellington (Hunters, dahling), accompanied by a certain farmer jacket, Glasto is "the posh one" and the one that everyone who is anyone wants to go to. Over the years, however, more and more festivals have cropped up at this time of year to cater to the different tastes and locations of people that want to have a dirty weekend in the country. Not that kind of dirty.

While we can reference Reading, V Fest, T in the Park and Wireless to name a few, there is one festival that sort of stands out. And that festival is Latitude.

It markets itself as "more than just a music festival" and it is not wrong. 

If you had to write a list of the best bands, comedians, DJs, speakers, films, art, fashion, food (the list goes on), the chances are it would look a lot like the line-up for Latitude. With 23 sub sections, the line up for this four day festival reads more like an excessively extravagant wish list than a real festival line up. Sure there are some acts that you won't have heard of, but that's the magic of a festival like Latitude; you go in with an open mind and come away with a host of new songs to download, podcasts to listen to and a wacky painting of a toilet to hang on your wall. Err, so perhaps that last beer wasn’t such a good idea before purchasing art you intend to display in public.

Latitude is the festival that has something for everyone, but of course this means that not everything can appeal to every attendee. I myself, for example, will be avoiding Germaine Greer like the plague, because, quite frankly, she terrifies me. I fear she may be able to smell my hopes of getting married and having children and lecture me to death. I will, however, be rushing to see Russel Kane who I happen to have a teensy crush on (guyliner does it for me, what can I say) and seeing lesser known bands like Swim Deep sing their sweet little hearts out while I munch on one of the many culinary delights sold at the four day wonder-fest. My only concern for this festival of festivals, is that, with so much ground to cover, I won't have the time to do everything. But then again, there's always next year.

I expect to come away from Latitude with my belly hurting from raucous laughter, my feet hurting from my wild dancing and my head hurting from what is likely to be an accumulative hangover. Looking at that vibrant toilet picture certainly won’t help. With such a smorgasbord of activity, what I am most looking forward to at Latitude festival, is the unexpected.