I suspect that this might be indicative of lots of US bands not committing to European festival dates next year (would have loved to have seen Haim headline the Friday night this year ).
In lighter news, moved a week back in the calendar, presumably to make it easier for families with school age kids to attend which makes sense as it’s a very family friendly festival…
What has happened to this festival it used to have fairly decent lineups? Those are just shite guessing they need the beigest of the beige to sell tickets next year.
And I know I have been saying it for a while but, I will be absolutely stunned if we see any US acts in the UK next year.
I know there’ll be issues with bookings and stuff in the current climate, but I’d go as far as to say that’s the worst set of headliners at any festival, ever, anywhere.
Give someone younger & more vital & not white with a cock & balls a chance to play a big set.
Just FYI, I get that they have a target market, and one of those three - maybe Capaldi as he hasn’t done any / many headlining gigs - would be totally fine. But all three? Wowza.
That was the last one I went to after a few years of going, and although the lineup was decent, it was noticeable how much the crowd had changed to be rich people Butlins rather than people there for the music. And they were leaning fully into it with way more posh camping sheds, Waitrose etc. It was always p boujie before, but that year it really felt like the number of people there to quaff prosecco and wear red chinos had way overtaken the number of people there for the music.
Latitude headliners are usually pretty crap (Kraftwerk and New Order notable exceptions) but that’s a new low.
Latitude is very posh - and it’s pretty horrible around the bars on a Saturday night with lots of ya’s who had only come for the headliner. I love the relative quietness of Thursday night.
Green Man is a bit odd too. Loads and loads of prams, buggies and push-chairs.
Last year on the Saturday night they had Stereophonics ‘headlining’ at 8pm and then Underworld ‘closing’ at 10pm - assume so that daytrippers could see Stereophonics and then head off early. Worked out well for us - went for a shower in deserted showerblock at 8 and then went to see Underworld play an awesome set.
In fairness, I’ve been going to Latitude for 10 years and never really gone for the headliners who tend to be quite middle of the road (Suede, Mumford, 1975, The National have all headlined in recent years). That said, they’ve been better than most of the major festivals with regards female act representation - Haim were due to headline this year (with Charli XCX headlining the following night on the second stage), while last year saw Lana del Rey headline and the year before Solange (both amazing)…
Yeah, we’ve been three times and only saw Kraftwerk, New Order and a little of Damon Albarn as headliners. I think we ended up in the cabaret tent mostly while the headliners were on. The best bands seem to all clash at around 4pm!
).