Latitudes and Attitudes

I’ve written about a variety of festivals (music and otherwise) that I would have liked to have attended, but found that following on the web was the next best thing: the Aspen Ideas Festival, Glastonbury and The Guardian Hay Festival. Now there is another British entry, the Latitude Festival, which I had not heard of until now, but is four years old. It’s already over, having run from July 16-19. Check out Mark Savage’s Latitude festival is a class act and other BBC coverage. NME.com and others covered the solo set by Thom Yorke of Radiohead, in which he gave the debut of a new song, “The Present Tense.” (I used to read NME, then in its pre-online, weekly print-only days, as often as possible back in my music days of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Especially at first, it wasn’t easy to find in the States, so it’s a sign of the times how readily available it is on the web.) Check out the complete list of acts appearing on multiple stages; including four music stages, with the Pet Shop Boys, Regina Spektor, the Pretenders, Grace Jones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds along with many others. There was also literature (including Orwell: A Celebration, billed as “an unprecedented theatrical tribute to the work of George Orwell”; Geoff Dyer, Blake Morrison and many others), plus films, comedy, cabaret and more. For additional media coverage, see The Guardian, The Independent and other UK media outlets.