The ladies in straw boaters and red and white suits selling strawberries and cream were the give away. The overflowing poetry tent and the presence of not only the Royal Shakespeare Company but also English National Ballet was just confirmation. Latitude Festival, often compared with the hippy haven of Glastonbury, perhaps had elements more in common with Glyndebourne Opera, with its tuxedos and interval champagne, than its Somerset based counterpart.

Photo: Jen O'Neill 

And what of it? Festival organizer Melvin Benn acknowledged its “middle class credentials” in a recent interview whilst discussing the introduction of yoga to this year’s line-up. Despite best intentions, the 10:30am timing meant that this was not to be for us.

We did enjoy the ultra-relaxed yet party ready atmosphere however, with families aplenty and a pleasant convivial buzz about the whole site. Never were the babies in nappies at risk of having their tent burnt down, nor having beer flung up in the sky only to land on their head, unlike at some festivals that shall remain nameless… Food wise, we came across some absolute stonking options, the highlight of which was undoubtedly The Hurly Burly, which offered actual real seats and tables in an actual real covered tent, serving an actual real Irish inspired breakfast and actual real coffee. And it’s all powered by solar panels! Beat that!

Photo: M Seth

One thing, or rather two things, that were not so polite were the storms. I say two things because there were a pair of them, both at night, and both involving us testing our hastily bought pop-up tent’s waterproofness. It failed. The crowd roared as Damon Albarn’s Saturday main-stage set was illuminated by forked lightning, and even more so as Graham Coxon of fellow Blur fame joined him on stage for Tender, followed by Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood, and then ending with Damon Albarn’s own Heavy Seas of Love featuring a gospel choir. The crowd danced like lunatics in the rain – one of those true transcendental festival experiences.

And actually a third thing, come to think of it. Lily Allen’s last second addition as a Friday headliner introduced a no-holds barred critique of today’s society from the 29-year old Londoner to the child-heavy audience. Replete with giant baby dummies on stage, her hit filled set had an easy anti-establishment thread to it.

Photo: Jen O'Neill

Earlier that day, we’d managed to catch the end of Mercury-Award winning Rudimental’s unannounced main stage set. Sound amazing, trumpet’s soaring – these guys challenge the most two-left-feet of us to not get our dancing shoes on.

How about the polite? Well, there was Gillian Clarke in the poetry tent, who seemed to be rather unhappy about all the background noise, but more appealing to the audience was Luke Wright, co-curator of this surprisingly popular stage, who brought an everyday geezer approach to the art form.

Photo: M Seth

Bombay Bicycle Club’s set left little to say apart from a list of superlatives. The electronic element of their latest album So Long See You Tomorrow has been much reviewed, but interspersed, the songs demonstrated their connection with the rest of their impressive body of work. Musically astonishing: soaring, dancing, story-telling.

Tame Impala brought a hearty of dose of psychedelic to the proceedings and their adoration of the festival’s coloured sheep matched the trippy visual show on the screens, complementing their unique sound. Experimental, engrossing and daring.

Elsewhere on the music stages, Phosphorescent’s set tugged at the heartstrings and the tear ducts, and missing their keyboardist, they pulled out a quasi-acoustic version of Song for Zula that had all the pathos and the melancholic euphoria of the original. Haim’s hyper-active set had the crowd dancing, and in other sister-band related news, First Aid Kit’s slick country sound was slightly clinical.

Latitude is absolutely not a festival at which one should be confined to the main stage and we were lucky enough to find time for Ballet Revolucion of Havana – lively, energetic, tightly choreographed; Olivia Chaney in an intimate Lavish Stage for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction – soaring Purcell-inspired vocals; Balkanatics on the same stage – virtuosic Balkan inspired brass playing; and an all-star band including members of the Beastie Boys, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem performing music by the media-shy cult Nigerian funk hero William Onyeaboar. Eclecticism exemplified, the Festival is undoubtedly “a perfect sort of utopia” to quote Kevin Parker again.

Article: Tom Philpot