Mellow mood as festival winds down

Laura Devlin Sunday, July 20, 2008
4:09 PM

Laura Devlin

There is a distinctly mellow vibe to Latitude today. Some bleary-eyed campers are slowly packing up their tents in preparation for the journey home, taking one last tour of the site or a final photograph of those ubiquitous pink sheep.

There is a dinctinctly mellow vibe to Latitude today.

Some bleary-eyed campers are slowly packing up their tents in preparation for the journey home, taking one last tour of the site or a final photograph of those ubiquitous pink sheep.

The musical soundtrack to their gradual exodus is, for the time-being, soothing, melodic and kind to hangovers.

It's an appropriate start to the final day after last night's hauntingly beautiful set by Sigur Ross. Their sweeping, cinematic sound either blows you away or, as detractor Marcus Brigstocke put it during this morning's early edition "it was like listening to one long bank advert. Halfway through I'd arranged a mortgage."

The rolling fields of the Henham estate feel less chaotic than yesterday, when the swarming mass of day visitors created a premium for dance space and picnic benches, and made it impossible to get within the same postcode as Bill Bailey's eagerly-awaited slot in the comedy tent.

But Sunday has seen a colourful cavalcade of children in fancy dress - led by a woman on stilts wearing pink fur, of course - impromptu piano playing by the lake and the quiet sipping of champagne by the theatre tent.

The line-up is still crammed with must-sees, from Mock The Week's rather naughty stand-up Scot Frankie Boyle, Latitude regular Stewart Lee and Rich Hall's alter-ego Otis Lee Crenshaw, to Foals, Noah and The Whale and Glasvegas.

Ralf Little of The Royle Family showed off his skills for rap and, er, dumping women, in the Bush Theatre's hilarious 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. Risque sketches, heart-rending drama and prodigious acting talent has flooded the Theatre tent, with Cumbrian youth theatre's exploration of the plight of young refugees in the UK providing a particular highlight last night.

Tonight's acts maintain the theme of Latitude diversity - with a slice of vintage pop from Blondie contrasted with melancholy headliners Interpol.

So what tent, what arena to choose - especially if you are on your honeymoon. Yes, Latitude is witnessing a "mass wedding" of loved-up festival-goers by the lake this afternoon. How official the ceremony is remains to be seen. But I bet it involves at least one pair of fairy wings.

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