Live Review

Latitude Festival – Day 1 –

• 24th Jul 2009

In the depths of sleepy Suffolk, amidst ancient legends of giant dogs roaming the country side sits Latitude Festival. Surrounded by woodland the traffic diversion is the only indication that there are thousands of excited festival goers just beyond the tree-line. Many will tell you that this is the festival of the polite, laid back middle classes, and as you wander around the festival there certainly is significant amount of sensible footwear and “outdoorsy” apparel; coupled with a large family presence not found at many of the larger festivals. However if you look a little more closely and venture away from the main stages you’ll find a varied and exciting mix of wild artists, cabaret dancers, fairy creatures and big thinkers.

After a wrestling match with some tent pegs and guide ropes we head down in to the main arena. Deciding to take a little wander through the woodland we are greeted by a troupe of velvet clad Goth’s on their way to perform “Sleep No More: A Gothic Wedding” they seem made for this wild woodland setting. However our stomachs are calling us so we decide to press on and find ourselves by the Uncut stage just in time to hear the high piercing voice of Raissa lead singer of The Mummers, who play a beautiful twinkling set that seems to both lull and excite the growing audience. We wander through the site taking in the sights and sounds and come across The tree of lost things, which has fluttering from it’s branches a series of brown tags with the sometimes funny, sometimes profound and often a little daft items that mystery festival goers have at one time or another lost in their lives listed upon them.

We make our additions to this unusual project and make our way up to the ever popular comedy tent just in time to catch the end of a set by Stephen K Amos who has the relaxed crowd in stitches with his jokes about Coon cheese from Australia, we decide to stay and have an entertaining afternoon watching the Brighton based comic Zoe Lyons and the Scottish Canadian Phil Nichol, who by the end of the set has the entire tent singing along joyously to “I’m the only gay Eskimo (in my tribe)” and finishes of with a poem for the anarchist, “do everything you’re not supposed to”.

Having clambered out of the comedy tent we dash back over the bridge and back up to the woods to watch Blue Roses the delicate Yorkshire born folk singer who claims inspiration from the likes of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsom, with gentle and haunting guitar and her soaring vocal she has all those watching smiling softly. We are swiftly transported out of our quiet reflection however when we get back to the lake stage to find a wild transvestite introducing the new alternative fashion lines of the House of Blue eyes, accompanied by the sounds of the sex pistols his models strut their way across the Lake on a bridge lying just below the water level, giving the impression that they are walking on water.

As the rain starts to pick up I head to the Film arena for the BAFTA premier of White Lightning, a fictionalised film about the life of Jesco White the acclaimed southern American “mountain dancer”, a film that is sure to shock many who watch it and certainly get under your skin, we enjoyed a Q&A with the films director Dominic Murphy and lead actor Edward Hogg, who spends much of his time winking at members of the audience. By this time most of the festival are jumping around at the Obelisk arena to the record perfect sounds of the Pet Shop Boys, however I am eager to check out Bat for Lashes, and it seems I’m not alone as those in the know quickly fill up the tent and they don’t disappoint switching from upbeat electric sounds to sweet harmonies and grand piano. Buzzing we weave our way through the crowds and rain and glimpse animations being projected on to a fountain spray across the river, with multicoloured trees and sheep offering a vibrant backdrop, we head up to the Gaymers Cider garden for a Karaoke party with a difference to party in to the night.