My 2nd Latitude

A couple weekends ago, I took my sister off to Latitude for her birthday and some fun and games. 

The fun and games got off to a delayed start whilst the British Transport Police worked on a getting a man off Ipswich station's roof for 7 hours - we suggested a tranquiliser dart as we made our way from London to Cambridge to Norwich to Diss......

Eventually, we got to our campsite and quickly set up the tent with a beer in hand - natch. 

We had pretty much missed all the live music by this time but managed 10 minutes of Japandroids and 20 minutes of Bloc Party playing some 'Silent Alarm' hits with lasers - always good. 

My sister wasn't really into Guilty Pleasures the year before so we decided to go to In the Woods, I then wandered over to the Lake Stage where Moshi Moshi were DJing and certainly enjoying themselves. We camped out here for most of their set before I rejoined my sister at In The Woods and it was time for the stages to close and we headed back to the guest bar for more drinks. It had now been officially my sister's birthday for a few hours so we sung 'Happy Birthday' and chatted into the daylight hours.

Changing at Cambridge

De-thistling our tent area

Friday evening

We started Saturday with some mimosas, unfortunately having to sacrifice seeing Dylan Moran over finishing the prosecco. Our friends arrived around the time White Denim started so we had to miss them as well, not going so well on the music front. However, then it was time for Jagua Ma, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hot Chip and Kraftwerk who certainly made up for our lack of progress earlier that day. We started on the vodka around YYYs - who were my 2nd highlight of the weekend - so by the time Kraftwerk were finished - my highlight even if the 3D thing wasn't amazing - we were ready to party hard. We attempted to get our party on at Buttoned Down Disco but had to retreat to the guest bar where tunes were more plentiful. We realised it would be better to hit the hay before it got bright so retired around 4am. 

D's birthday

Kraftwerk excitement 

A good start to a Sunday begins with Bobby Womack, so we happily obliged. We hung out for a few hours, before heading to Temples at the i Arena. I was enjoying their set but couldn't stay till the end as the dust from the woods worked itself into my eyes and nose - worse than tube nose. We watched a good portion of James Blake before packing up the tent and heading back to the train station for a cup of tea, sausage sandwich and our carriage home. 

I feel Latitude is the perfect sized festival for me, it's a great site and perhaps we didn't work this to our advantage this year, but a varied bill of not just music. 

PITCH Festival

At the start of the month, I headed over to PITCH Festival in Amsterdam. 

We arrived on Friday evening and headed to the hotel to check in, we were staying a little out on the centre of town, but a walk away from the site, the lovely Westerpark. 

After a couple hours down time, we headed to the old gas works:

Our first act of the day was Leif, I then headed into one of the bigger stages for Mulatu Astatke who was playing with a large band and suitably impressive. 

We danced along to a spot of Rustie before sampling some of Mykki Blanco's warm up acts - one was a mermaid-esq dancer who mesmerised the crowd with her/his laser lights, I couldn't help thinking that it might not work in London but in the friendlier, more open climes of Amsterdam, no one batted an eyelid. I only managed to see one of Mykki Blanco's songs before I headed over to the festival's biggest stage to see James Blake. It had been a while since I'd seen him, I was reminded of why I got into him. Excellent set. Afterwards, I rejoined my group and we got hyped for Jon Hopkins who quickly became my festival highlight. We mucked around till it was time for Cyril Hahn but he couldn't quite keep my attention so we wandered home. 

James Blake

Saturday - we jumped in a taxi to town and had a wander around the canals and Begijnhof before having a drink on the riverside, a drink at the cavernous Gollem and a quick stop at a cafe. We headed back to the festival site for round two. We spent a little more time by the reedy waterside drinking 0.2l beers and eating falafels and frites but still managed to check out the Syrian don that is Omar Souleyman and Bonobo who were playing as a 5 (?) piece band. I had a mild freak out after Bonobo whilst having a smoke, and had to sit in the shade for a while (I was dressed for less hot weather), luckily after chilling for 10 minutes, I was good and ready to dance to AlunaGeorge, Lukid, Disclosure, Bicep and Cashmere Cat. We had become restless towards the end of Bicep and Cashmere Cat so we decided to leave before Bashmore and spent our last tokens on more frites, a wise choice you might say. We walked home excitedly, running around picnic tables and posing with an array of bicycle carts. 

I noticed that there seemed to be a shortage of lighters at the festival, quite surprising for the location. And that sports luxe was big on the scene in Amsterdam

Sunday - it was the day of the Wimbledon final so we hit up a sports bar (Euro Pub) in Dam Square, ie. it was a little dodgy but the only sports bar our hotel knew about. We hadn't managed to watch any tennis before it was time to head to the airport. Beers in the sun wasn't a bad consolation though. Murray won the match whilst we were in the air.