A Wet Sunday to Finish
Having enjoyed at least 24 hours of relatively good weather, the heavens opened once again this morning setting the scene for a soggy final day. But the conditions bring with them certain advantages - most notably that crowds tend to dive into the nearest tent and experience acts that wouldn’t normally be on their agenda.
Consequently the poetry, literature, cabaret, comedy and theatre tents are all overflowing as people head under canvas. I ended up in the cabaret tent where former children’s TV presenter Kirsten O’Brien was the unlikely compere for an afternoon line-up featuring the brassy Orkestra del Sol (who trouped in from outside) and comedy duo Cardinal Burns. The latter were a real find, two-thirds of Edinburgh Comedy award nominees Fat Tongue whose humour lies somewhere between League of Gentlemen and Mitchell & Webb. Perhaps my critical sensibilities were skewed by nature of being grateful for the protective canvas, but I guffawed my way through half an hour of sketches including a very ordinary man being interviewed on a spoof talk show called I Know Your Name, and an actor being asked to imagine having sex with two hawks during an advert audition.
For those brave enough to venture outside Sadler’s Wells were presenting the third part of Swan Lake (which has been running throughout the festival) and the brilliant Hofesh Shechter on the Waterfront stage - a fine platform with a sadly limited audience capacity. And in the woods, children’s entertainers and madcap 20-piece bands rewarded those who ventured off the beaten track.
Latitude really is different from any other festival experience. It’s fascinating to see so many different artforms jostling for audiences in such a small space, the sounds of each bleeding into the other. But it’s heartening to see the likes of the Young Vic’s fantastic mounting of Che Walker’s musical Been So Long (one of the theatre tent’s best offerings) attracting full houses when the competition includes the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Bat for Lashes.The weather, I’m told, is the worst the festival has seen in its four-year history - not surprising considering we’ve witnessed everything from horizontal lightning (yes, really) to tent peg-pinging gales. Despite controversy over higher ticket prices, cider brand choices and the clout of the music headliners, I’ll remember Latitude 09 for its demonstrable commitment to expanding its theatre programme and its ability to constantly present something worth looking at. I’ve seen everything from actors mimicking sheep in a field to an impromtu performance of the title song from Fame involving nearly 20 performers in leg-warmers, to Chas n’ Dave.Sadly I’ll miss the grand finale this evening (back to London now for work in the morning), but that said I feel utterly culturally sated and badly in need of a shower. Actually, let me re-phrase that…
- Theo Bosanquet