We really should feel spoiled

[knivesout]

right, i just got back from latitude today and what predominantly now comes to mind is just how special glastonbury really is in comparison. i've noticed some misgivings about this year's festival on the board which i personally can't really relate to seeing as this was probably my favourite year out of all the years i've attended, but honestly, the sheer scale and range of what senor and senorita eavis give us trumps anything else imaginable. don't get me wrong, i had a great time this weekend, and latitude is a rather pleasant festival that easily outdoes other festival republic events, but at the same time elements of it served as reminders of what a festival should avoid - over zealous security involving regular full body pat downs (2 of my friends' group had been kicked out for minimal amounts of mdma by saturday), intrusive corporate advertising (a vodafone banner on the obelisk sound tower, a bose tent, a jager tent and a lucozade fucking roller disco) and the cynical ploy for higher bar revenues that is the arena/campsite system. in addition, aspects of latitude are almost directly catted from glastonbury - i'm thinking here about the woodland yurts bearing the greenpeace logo and the relentless attempts at decor hippification. as i said, this isn't intended as a dig at latitude, a festival which i genuinely enjoyed, it's just a reminder that, however much we may moan about glastonbury and its supposed decline, it still has a magic to it which makes everywhere else look a bit pallid in comparison. lets celebrate it while it lasts, because it won't be around forever, and lets admire the ways in which its resisted the pitfalls that other events wilfully step into.

[Zoo Music Girl]

Interesting post. I personally had a great time at Glastonbury this year but it was only my fifth time so I don't have the same feeling that others do that it's changed etc. I still absolutely love it.

I must say that I quite fancied Latitude after hearing some live footage on 6music. Sounds pretty middle class but it had an amazing line-up. Still, I suppose nothing is quite like Glastonbury.

Edit; Not that there is anything wrong with being middle class - I probably am myself. It just has that kind of reputation.

Edited July 23, 2013 by RebeccaD

[Pinhead]

Quite agree with OP. For all the moans about it its only cos we love Glasto so much that we don't want to see it spoilt.

[Northernsoul45]

_{interesting commetns about latitude...its a festival i've looked at and conisdered in the past, had a decent lineup this eyar, but kinda lacking a big enough dance element for my tastes.}

[Pinhead]

Mate of mine went to Buddhafields last week and had many a good thing to say about it, particularly in relation to how it was like the Glasto greenfields of old, though apparently its not on next year whilst they undergo a period of ideological introspection...

[knivesout]

Interesting post. I personally had a great time at Glastonbury this year but it was only my fifth time so I don't have the same feeling that others do that it's changed etc. I still absolutely love it.

I must say that I quite fancied Latitude after hearing some live footage on 6music. Sounds pretty middle class but it had an amazing line-up. Still, I suppose nothing is quite like Glastonbury.

Edit; Not that there is anything wrong with being middle class - I probably am myself. It just has that kind of reputation.

[More rain]

over zealous security involving regular full body pat downs (2 of my friends' group had been kicked out for minimal amounts of mdma by saturday),

Edited July 23, 2013 by More rain

[eFestivals]

I hate to be a killjoy but just because it is a festival does not mean you can break the law.

and yet there would not be the festival scene that there is in the UK if law-breaking (in a number of different and minor, and mostly 'victimless', ways) hadn't been an intrinsic part of that festival scene.

The simple fact is that someone taking MDMA is not any bother to anyone else*, and no one suffers as a result of their 'crime'.

(* that needs a little bit of qualification. Yes, of course they could be a bother to someone else, but no more than is possible from someone doing the allowable drinking of alcohol. Or even someone totally straight).

If drug taking was not considered as something that you might do a festival, then the festival scene would quickly shrink in size and most of what would be left would be the events headlined by Oli Murrs, Jessie J, etc - as mainstream and safe as it's possible to be.

[5co77ie]

Mate of mine went to Buddhafields last week and had many a good thing to say about it, particularly in relation to how it was like the Glasto greenfields of old, though apparently its not on next year whilst they undergo a period of ideological introspection...

[Zoo Music Girl]

oh it's very middle class. it's a mix of soft east anglian private school kids (who are all actually pretty nice, no trouble with any of them) and people who probably live in stoke newington.

the headlining lineup this year was probably more to my taste than glastonbury - kraftwerk were phenomenal and foals were very good

[UEF]

I went to Lovebox this weekend. It was like a Glastonbury for chavs and had a real "you looking at me m8?" vibe to it. Some nice people but not many you'd want to spend time with.

[knivesout]

Is this not what security are employed for? At the end of the day possession of a class A drug is illegal, get caught face the consequences. If you are implying it should have just been confiscated and they be sent on their merry way, I think you are way off the mark.

I hate to be a killjoy but just because it is a festival does not mean you can break the law.

EDIT:

Infact, your whole post is ridiculous.

Edited July 24, 2013 by knivesout

[sunnyshoes]

A reminder that Gbury might not be around forever - sad days! I can't imagine a festival would ever be able to take its place no matter how hard they tried - there's something in the soil there!

[mrtourette]

but in any case, can we please not turn this thread into yet another political mudslinging session? it's better that we keep that in the "can we talk about drugs please" one and concentrate on glastonbury here.

Edited July 23, 2013 by mrtourette

[TomfromStroud]

I was at Latitude this weekend too and agree. It's fun but just nowhere near as good on so many levels. My mate who usually comes to Glastonbury came too and we both agreed that Glastonbury might have spoiled other festivals for us, but that we're pretty glad it has!

[Zoo Music Girl]

It definitely spoils you for other festivals. That said I think it's still fun to try others out as long as you manage your expectations in advance. For me the lack of an arena/campsite set-up and the sheer scale of the place are hard to beat. But I like experimenting with other festivals - it's just finances that hold me back!

[guypjfreak]

well said OP old son

[rubenz]

The Jager tent sounds nice though..

[Tuna]

It's a completely different vibe though, man. Glastonbury's enormity is enough to overwhelm, whereas Latitude is much more adorable and condensed. When a festival has 30,000 or whatever attending, I think it's fair enough to ramp the bar prices up (to £4.50 a pint - hardly crazy amounts over a Glasto pint) to be honest - especially when it's a festival in growth such as Latitude. Look at the lineups over the past few years and you can see how much more of an attraction the festival is coming - but to get the word to spread, they need that income - also applies to the advertisement. Besides, need I remind you of the EE tents at Glasto also? About as intrusive as the jager tent outside of the arena, no?

As for the whole drugs comment, your friends really did an awful job of hiding it, considering nobody I was with even got cans found when smuggling into the arena. Besides, possession of a class A.. kind of understandable I think?

Genuinely, for the size of the festival, I think Latitude do a wonderful job. The only things, bar the size (of site and acts), that Glastonbury personally has over it is the nightlife, and the lack of arena system. But that's festival republic for you.

[Amy Lawn]

I like Latitude more than Glastonbury

Come at me, blud.

[Bisque]

Is anyone really surprised?

I usually spend the rest of the summer waxing lyrical about how good Glastonbury was/is to anyone, & I make sure they ask me first before I mention it, compared to the festival we're at. I'll keep Bestival for my after-G pick me up.

tbh: I don't really care too much about most of the sponsorship, some fests rely on it, unless it reduces the experience of the smaller intimate venues that luckily Glastonbury has an abundance of & has the mass-sell out ticket sales to to cover.

We are very very lucky this happens in the UK!

Edited July 24, 2013 by Couchy

[Bisque]

You could probably dump the whole of the regular Latitude crowd into Glastonbury & you wouldn't know the difference, as you'd be off doing your own thing & they would too over a much bigger area with even further varying degrees of attendees involved in getting up to no good.

[knivesout]

It's a completely different vibe though, man. Glastonbury's enormity is enough to overwhelm, whereas Latitude is much more adorable and condensed. When a festival has 30,000 or whatever attending, I think it's fair enough to ramp the bar prices up (to £4.50 a pint - hardly crazy amounts over a Glasto pint) to be honest - especially when it's a festival in growth such as Latitude. Look at the lineups over the past few years and you can see how much more of an attraction the festival is coming - but to get the word to spread, they need that income - also applies to the advertisement. Besides, need I remind you of the EE tents at Glasto also? About as intrusive as the jager tent outside of the arena, no?

As for the whole drugs comment, your friends really did an awful job of hiding it, considering nobody I was with even got cans found when smuggling into the arena. Besides, possession of a class A.. kind of understandable I think?

Genuinely, for the size of the festival, I think Latitude do a wonderful job. The only things, bar the size (of site and acts), that Glastonbury personally has over it is the nightlife, and the lack of arena system. But that's festival republic for you.

Edited July 24, 2013 by knivesout

[knivesout]

The Jager tent sounds nice though..

[Readermike]

I don't think you can really compare the two. I was at Latitude this weekend and had a fantastic time. I tried for Glasto tickets this year and wasn't successful - a pill made less bitter by the line up for Latitude being far more to my tastes. The site is lovely and exceptionally well managed but it will never inspire that same slack-jawed sense of wonder and awe that you get in Pilton. And the bag checks when you go in are a pain but I had no problem getting things through. Taking water off people in that heat is just plain stupid, though.

Latitude will never have the history or the diversity of Glastonbury but it does have an incredibly eclectic range of things to do and there are some lessons that Glasto could learn - the plastic recyclable beer cups, for example. I didn't see a single one discarded on the floor.

I was surprised to see the Jäger bar and the lucozade roller-disco. The former looked like an experiment that won't be repeated and the latter was popular with the many kids on site and the free lucozade shots helped with the hangover. As another poster pointed out, neither were in the arena - they were in the 'village' area, which also had a brilliant Oxfam shop alongside the usual tat. With the exception of the vodaphone banner on the tower, there was very little sponsorship to be affronted by.

Yes - Glastonbury is the greatest festival on earth. Yes - it's in a very special place and it spoils you for other festivals. But Latitude is a brilliant festival that does what it does very well indeed. I'm grateful to live in a country that offers so much choice and possibility.