I have a friend from high school days who leads an interesting life. A recent trip led her to The Latitude Music Festival and she sent me an email providing a fabulous review of same. I asked her permission to share it with you all. She was even kind enough to send photos!! Thank you, Liz!! Without further ado...
"A little background, my daughter finished college and decided to spend 6 months in London before going to grad school. She has never returned for longer than a 2 week visit. I often travel to London to see her and spend time with my two grandchildren. Last month, there was some confusion with holiday schedules and the nanny booked hers a week early. Super Grandma hurried over and (had) quality time with the kiddos. As a treat, my daughter booked us tickets for the Latitude Music Festival and I must say it was an experience. Not one I really want to ever have again, but I did learn a lot. For instance:
1. A music festival in the UK isn't just about music of all kinds for all ages; it also includes art, literature and poetry, theater and film. From Tom Jones to The XX. From Shakespeare to an all male Swan Lake. But even with all the activities, when that many people are in one place,, it is very likely that you will not get to see everything that you circle on your program. I stood in line several hours Saturday morning and did not get into any of the plays or comedy shows I was interested in. Finally in the afternoon I managed to get into one play, but only because I inadvertently used the wrong door to walk into a show that was running overtime and stayed in my seat for the one I wanted to see. It was only later that I learned the line for the show I watched was queued at another door!
2. Music festivals are loud and music festival maps are not always to scale! All the bands started at 3pm and the music continued non-stop until 3am. Even if the map shows you are as far from the stages as possible, it will not be far enough. Sound travels well in the country and even music you like can keep you awake. Foam earplugs do not work.
3. A Yurt might be billed as luxury accommodations, but it's still basically a tent! The photo on the Internet made the yurt look so large, holding up to 2 king size beds, but in actuality, it was pretty full with only 1 king size bed. We ordered 3 additional camp beds which turned out to be very basic air mattresses. Once all the beds were set up, it was wall to wall non-sleeping for everyone! We did share the big bed and I got one night on it - it truly was very comfortable and warm, everything the air mattress was not.
4. People will buy almost anything when you hold them captive for 3 days. Despite the high prices, food and drink vendors sold out of the most popular items by 5pm each day. As one eating establishment noted, "We are in a field, we will run out of stuff." I thought the girl working there was a little heartless when she would laugh and tell us, "No, none of that either!" The Fairy Retail Center was doing a booming business selling Festival Tails, False Eyelashes, Fairy Skirts and Flower Garland for the hair. The Bubble Factory sold so many Giant Bubble Makers (as see in the Book of World Records) that by the last day, the sky was filled with bub bles of all sizes and colors.
5. That "get your freak on" could be meant in a literal sense. I told Jordan that the same children we see in their Halloween costumes, tutus and superman capes all year are probably the same ones that grow up to wear the outfits we saw at the festival. There were many, many hippies and fairies, but at one point I saw a herd of 8 Waldos in striped shirts, black pants and funny glasses. I looked another way and saw a man and woman in 18th century wedding attire, then near the Fairy Retail Center, there was a young woman wearing only artificial flowers for clothing. She needed more flowers as they did not cover as much territory as they should have! Oh, the sheep on the hillside were colored pink, blue, green, yellow, etc. to match the Latitude logo.
6. All of the above mentioned outfits and non-outfits were paired with festival Wellies. You know those rubber boots that kids wear to splash in puddles, well they are regulation festival wear in England. The weather was fine, which means it only rained a little each day. Normally, since the festival was held in a cow pasture, that would result in a mucky mess for footwear. But, it has been a dry summer in the UK so the rain quickly dried up and there were only a few areas that got muddy. The funniest Wellie story was the couple that took their clothes off, but kept the Wellies on to climb one of the light towers. The security guys tried to get them down, but didn't risk touching them above the Wellies. We walked away before they got them down, but they were not there the next morning so I guess someone got tired and gave up.
7. That distances in England are so misleading! I know this as I have driven in England before, but even the GPS said the 5 hour trip should have taken 2-1/2 hours! It wasn't just the festival traffic, that I expected, it was the time it took to get out of London on a Friday. For example, at the 3 hour mark, we stopped for petrol (gas), water and to use the loo (toilet). The traffic was so heavy leaving the gas station that it took us almost 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot, giving my grandson plenty of time to get sick all over himself and his mother. I can't imagine how long the drive would have been if we hadn't had a crazy driver. He was driving up to 100mph in 50mph zones, passing on curves and fiddling with the radio. At one time I thought I would ask him how many people he had killed, including the ones that died of fright in the front seat, but didn't want to upset him!
8. How horrible a refugee camp must smell and look. There were somewhere between 20-40K people at this event, not sure of the number of toilets and trash containers, but it wasn't enough. The event is billed as a "green" venue and there were lots of recycle containers, sitting next to the garbage dropped all over the ground! There were not enough showers, either. With the typical wait for a shower being 30 minutes to 2 hours, it was easier to not bathe and use your time to stand in other lines. There were socio-economic issues, too. The camping areas were sold by area and the more expensive the area, the less congestion. Some camp sites were so close together that you could step from one door into the next tent. We were in an area that you could not set up your own tent, but instead you could rent a tent, a yurt, a tepee, a pod or a caravan. This way the area was laid out neatly with plenty of room between spaces. Doesn't mean you could hear the guy in the yurt next door when he coughed, but at least we didn't hear him breathing.
9. When you get that many people in one spot, it may feel safe, but it still pays to be careful. We forgot to lock our yurt one morning and when we returned, one of our air mattresses was gone. But, that was nothing. I just read that there were 2 rapes in the general admission tent camps. Luckily we were in the high rent district where there were security guards at each entrace so we only had mattress thieves.
Reporting from London, the day after...
Liz"
I really don't think there is anything at all I could add to Liz's report. Just thought some of you might appreciate a light-hearted yet accurate report from across the pond!! Please let me know if YOU have had an interesting trip or attended an unusual event! I would love to have you as a guest blogger!!
Until next time...
I really don't think there is anything at all I could add to Liz's report. Just thought some of you might appreciate a light-hearted yet accurate report from across the pond!! Please let me know if YOU have had an interesting trip or attended an unusual event! I would love to have you as a guest blogger!!
Until next time...
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