So enough of that, let's move onto happier times (be warned, this is going to be a long blog) although I'm hoping the photos will help break it up a bit.

Latitude Festival 2008 - what a bloody fantastic weekend! I'd only agreed to work at it as a kind of pre-Reading festival to get me back into the swing of things - I didn't get to any festivals last summer so I thought it might be good for me to get more in this summer.

I don't really know where to start to be honest. The first cool thing was hearing that rdpixie was looking for a lift and I don't live too far from her. I'd seen her in some SG groups before but for some reason we'd never actually spoken to each other before but it was really nice to meet her and despite us both being a little worried in case we wouldn't get on or something, we had an absolute blast!

rdpixie hadn't worked at a festival before so it was really nice to talk it through with her - we were then given the same shifts and directed to the performers campsite!!



Yes, that's right, where all the famous people were camping!! Oh, what fun we had stalking all the celebrities!! Hehe I don't know if any of you know but I am a bit of a sucker for celebrities - I don't know why - they're only human I know but I do go stupid and am extremely nosey and want to know what they're doing etc! I'm sad, I accept that

Although I'd heard of Latitude Festival before I really had no idea what to expect but as Elbow were playing, I'd decided to make the best of whatever the festival threw at me and just enjoy Elbow's gig. What transpired is that Elbow played a gorgeous set, but so many other things happened apart from that, there is so much to tell you guys!!

I'll try and go through it all in some sort of order so here goes:

Thursday night we got there and set up our tents - after Reading's fuck up in 2006 where I took my tent and forgot the bloody poles and pegs, this time I was sure I had not made any silly mistakes - only to find that Stinky stitched me up with a shitty tent when I left my only used once tent round his house after Global Gathering - that's the only explanation I can come to anyway - yes, that's right, I realised my tent was completely fucked - the outside didn't match the inside and the inside didn't match the posts - we had to completely bodge my tent and hope that it stayed up - I felt such a prick anyway whatever - we then went for a venture to see what was about - most of the arenas weren't open until the Friday so we went for a quick look about to see what was open and we came across the most gorgeous stage in the woods and saw this band play:



They're called The Irrepressibles and their music is exquisite. I'm now on a mission to find everything they've ever recorded.



There were also lots of gorgeous art installations in the woods too:













Hanging from the trees:



The effort the organisers had gone into was amazing - the trees were lit up in ever-changing colours that could be seen for miles and the signage installed along the river looked amazing at night:





They even painted the sheep pink, purple and green! Check out their cute bums!!



I got quite upset when I first saw them - I pictured in my stoopid lil head that someone had held them tight while someone else sprayed them - until someone told me they were probably dipped - fuck me, I can be so naive sometimes!!

Anyway, I'm not going to go through every moment of the festival but will discuss a few highlights instead:

Jon Ronson - author of Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats as well as others - he was really funny and I want to buy all of his books now!



Mike Gayle - one of my favourite authors



We watched a couple of episodes of BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute programme hosted by the one and only Nicholas Parsons - contestants included Phill Jupitus, Clement Froyd, Paul Merton, Robin Ince and Ross Noble - they were great fun to watch!









The wonderful set by Elbow:



Grinderman!!:



We also watched a fantastic play written exclusively for Latitude:



Ralph Little was one of four actors in the play and it was hilarious - if you get the chance to see it, it's going to be on at The Bush Theatre until the 9th August

Having full access to the entire site when it was closed to the public:





The fantastic recycling scheme on the site:



The walk to/from work every day:







The food:



Meeting some famous people including:

Phill Jupitus:


Ross Noble:


Bill Bailey:


Rufus Hound:


Mark Lamarr:


I also saw Ralph Little (although sadly never got to get a photo with him and David Soul, original star of Starsky & Hutch)

Now:


Then:


The best thing though was making new friends with cool people:



The gerbil cheeks come out again!


So, all in all, I had the best weekend!