16th July

            After a night between Egyptian cotton sheets then a bath and a cooked breakfast Sandy and I drive up to Latitude; she with her camera and me with my notebook.  I decide not to write a diary but to be a roving reporter for two days. Focussing on the over-fifties is our niche angle.

            Marilyn Goss, 62 from Kent is at Latitude with a group of friends. A retired palliative care social worker, Marilyn is staying four nights in the Pink Moon Camping area where the tents are already set up and furnished with the added attraction of hot private showers and a hair care pamper parlour.  There are Charity Concierges roaming the campsites each morning to go and get breakfast, bringing it straight back to your tent. 

            Richard and Barbara, both 72, from North Creake in Norfolk are prolific attenders and are at their ninth Latitude. “We had to miss one year due to our grandson’s wedding.” Their tips include “Don’t name hunt; look all around and you’ll find gems. We saw Beirut on Friday night and Chvrches on Saturday night, both were brilliant.  Also, Jonny and the Baptists were great, and the one about the spies in the Literature Tent.  And, the Poetry tent is funnier than the Comedy tent but less crowded and less swearing.”  Has being one of the older attenders ever been an issue? “Last year I came out the wrong door after going to the toilet and ended up in the mosh pit for the Vaccines.  I just smiled. If young lads smile back I know they love their granny.” As for what Barbara had bought with her, just in case, she shows me the contents of her bag: a cashmere cardigan in duck-egg blue; a replacement top if she gets a bit hot; biscuits from her hotel room; wet wipes; a scarf in case it gets chilly; Compeed plasters; enough money and a mobile phone “but I don’t know how to use it.” There are also some Imperial Mints, some Kopiko coffee shot chocolates and some earplugs saved after a flight to Abu Dhabi. 

            Jane Futcher, 67 from Loughborough is a lip-reading tutor and this is her fourth Latitude visit. “The best bits have been Ken Loach with Mark Kermode, and The Slaves were brilliant. Sadler’s Wells Ballet was fantastic too.” In addition to music and film there’s Literature, Poetry, Comedy and Cabaret tents where June saw the “superb Graeae: Reasons to be Cheerful, an Ian Dury tribute that includes Gene Vincent’s son and wife in the band.” 

            Joanna Mair, 64 a retired teacher, and Andrew Mair, 70, a retired architect from Lowestoft stay in their caravan on the festival site.  Highlights were “Circa, which was almost Matthew Bourne, and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.” Had they known Rateliff before the festival? “No, we just joined a queue on Thursday night.”  They also loved Squeeze, British Sea Power, Sturgill Simpson, Will Hutton and most of the ballet.  “There’s such a range on offer, the comedy line-up is phenomenal. And the poetry!”

            Kathy Ferrar, 72, and Valerie Lindsell, 67 are travelling back to their homes in North Suffolk each night but have camped in the past. They’d first attended the festival in 2006 and have been back half a dozen times.  “We’d seen Christine and the Queens on the TV from Glastonbury so were keen to see them – brilliant.” As for deciding what to see – “we like to see new bands, maybe ones we’ve seen on Jules Holland or ones you just come across here. The Cabaret Tent is always good, Max and Ivan then Lazy Susan were excellent.”  They’ve bought with them first-time festival goer Edwin Jones, 68, “I just follow the ladies around,” and as for Lazy Susan “I enjoyed it despite it being feminist.”

            Carol Spenser, 60 from Framlingham, is doing “Latitude light – I just come each day but my husband and children camp.” Carol enjoyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Theatre, “it was raunchy; they were ripping each other’s clothes off, and we were right at the front for Christina and the Queens. They were fantastic, their main song ‘Tilted’ was about ambiguity and being who you want to be – that sums up this festival.”