Dave Gorman @ Latitude
I just realised that I haven’t posted anything about our recent trips.
The first one, at the end of July was Latitude, a 3 year old festival which is really coming into its own. It was referred to on more than one occasion as “the middle class festival”, and it probably was. This festival had the feel of a village fete where you were welcome to pitch up your tent.
It rained, of course, but there were never the mud baths of Glastonbury. The cider was Aston’s and nice, but not nearly as good as Brothers.
The whole feel to the festival was wonderful, very laid back and cultured. I missed the only band I wanted to see (Black Kids), Blondie was the other big contender, but she was on at the same time as Dave Gorman, so for me it was a no brainer, Dave had it. He did an entertaining set promoting his book Unchained America. It’s a chronicle of trying to get from cost to coast without giving any money to “The Man” (corporations). He had to find all gas, food, lodgings and (many) car repairs from independent, “mom and pop” businesses. I didn’t buy the book, but got it from the library when I returned, but I’ve only managed half of it, I was a bit disappointed with the prose, it’s very flat compared to Dave’s live presenting style.
The other highlights for me were the readings done by Word Theatre. Gary Dourdan read Martin Luther Kings I Have A Dream, and it gave me goose bumps and Beatie Edney, who I had never heard of previously, but had an amazing presence. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be interested in this sort of thing (readings and stuff), but both me and my 15 year old daughter were very impressed and went for all of the readings, I’d definitely look them out again.
There’s no comparison to Glastonbury, it’s like apples and oranges. This one was very convenient as we had to be in Suffolk that weekend to pick up the littlies, and I hope it falls like this for us next year as well.
