Latitude, Day 1

From Latitude 2011

Well, day 1 for us at least. The Latitude Festival actually runs over four days and was already one day into its programme by the time we arrived on the Friday. No need to pitch a tent on this occasion as we had booked a pre-pitched tent at Tangerine Fields. So we just needed to inflate the air bed and don shorts and sunglasses before setting off to the arena, where we managed to meet up with Jessica and her friends without too much difficulty. We knew in advance that we would need to make the best of Friday's sunny weather, as the forecast for the rest of the weekend was pretty dire.

First up (for us) was a lively set from KT Tunstall. Not sure why she was not higher up in the bill as she has quite a strong pedigree on the festival circuit. Next on the bill was Bright Eyes: some nice tunes but spoilt by a rather pretentious performance from Connor Oberst.

Time then to move over to the Word tent where I took in an excellent performance from The Vaccines. Having now seen them at Hyde Park and Latitude, and listened to their début album a few times, I can confidently predict that they will be massive by 2012.

Back to the Obelisk Arena for the night's head-liners, The National. I was not really that familiar with their material up to now, but their set was enjoyable enough nevertheless, and the rest of the crowd seemed to be very appreciative. I have to say, writing this now, I can't remember as single one of their songs, but still, it was a good end to a good day.

Except, of course, that the day doesn't end with the main sage acts, as there is an abundance of other things going on at Latitude, including cabaret, poetry and later in the early hours, various dance stages crank up their sound systems to +11, to entertain the youngsters until dawn.