July 2010: a festival year in review
Part three in our retrospective of the festival season
Chris Swindells - 26 October 2010
So praise Lord-Golden-Balls-Almighty that in reality it’s the festival equivalent to the 12 step programme –
final destination, enlightenment.
T in the Park saw the month in with more headlines than Gordon
Ramsay before the botox. It started with sexual assaults, two attempted
murders, a death, Muse’s UFO getting
banned, Eminem and wait for it.. some Scottish sunshine.
Brilliant? Gavin McInally seemed
to think so.
There were plenty of misplaced remarks for Gavin and the Kinross crowd to enjoy too; Eminem thanking
Edinburgh, Black Eyed Peas thanking Glasgow and
Faithless making one massive mistake in wardrobe. 
And now for something completely different: Lovebox Weekender.
Groove Armada curated madness
in London town has been long established as the one hipster hot spot for electro-pop legends like Grace Jones to meet the contemporary ‘blogosphere’
favourites like Chromeo. Jon Wright gave VF
his lowdown, and labelled the weekend “a reflection of our wild, polychromatic,
polysexual capital.” In any case, where else in London could you picture Peaches in this state?
July seemed more like a pit stop for the latest
in a line of boutique events and ‘micro festivals’ (as Claire Elshaw found out)
sandwiched between the ‘big hitters’ in June and August. The Secret Garden Party
leads that charge, as a circus of independent art, music and culture; it ‘secretly’ inhabits a corner of Cambridgeshire
countryside every summer. Marina
And the Diamonds, Mercury Rev
and Gorrilaz Sound System all fitted in the mix at what was last year deemed the ‘Best
Small Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards. Joe
Taylor got the chance
to chill in tree houses, observe the space-hopper racing and participate in a fancy dress ball-pit for VF all in the name
of good old-fashioned music journalism.
One of the month’s best kept secrets isn’t in Cambridgeshire
however but Clapham Common, where fair-trade and family fun converges with just a large
side-serving of ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s Sundae on the Common was a weekend
of free Phish food, candy floss and the sort of innocent childlike revelry you imagined the Cameron-led government would have
banned under ‘the big society’. Not so, as VF man Jules Farman found
out. He spent time watching Doves and
Frightened Rabbit do their
best to keep the spirited little festival in the shinny happy sunshine mood.
Latitude
Festival goers were treated to one of their highest profile ‘secret act’ announcements, as has become a
tradition of the festival, when Tom Jones
was added just weeks before the festival kicked off. 
Watching the orange-faced-man deal with
thongs from a throng of people demanding his sex bomb, all under the tree top covering of a wood somewhere in the Suffolk
wilderness has to be a highlight of my festival going summer. Tragically the festival was the second in July to be tainted
by the report
of two, unrelated, sexual offences.
There were some positive points for the sold out festival and all its visitors
to take home. Belle and Sebastian made a fine return as headliners and there were stellar
performances to catch from Mumford and
Sons, Grizzly Bear and
Yeasayer. Read my words on what Latitude 2010 was all about here.
The month was all but done when there was some vanilla icing and Carl Cox sprinkles to be added on top in the form of mess-fest - Global
Gathering. Three days when it’s always rave o’clock. Luke Roberts
came back with plenty of uppers
from seeing Dizzee’s daring headline set to Steve Aoki’s rockstar DJ take on everything from The Rakes to Refused.
The off-duty airfield in the heart of Shakespeare’s homeland of Stratford-upon-Avon swallowed a large chunk
of Glade punters following it’s cancellation
and, unbeknownst to the other ravers, Trident’s
Perpetual Festival Guide Katie P.
Internationally July left the world’s
festival scene reeling and seemingly back in the dark ages when a crowd surge through a tunnel at Love Parade in Duisburg claimed
the lives of 19 German party goers and left 340 more seriously injured. Days later Damon
Albarn spoke about dying at a festival, though the real tragedy in his case was the singer totally missing the point
as he tried
hard to explain away the dud performance Gorrilaz gave at Glastonbury the month previous.
It seems then we left July having learnt a lot about ourselves. How
quickly things can get out of hand when cartoon bands are allowed to headline internationally renowned festivals, how Jedward always
look better on their arse and Empire of the Sun’s new designer look doesn’t
bode well for Jay Kay.
Click here to revisit
August in festival review.
Click
here for our retrospective of April and March.
Click here for our retrospective
of May.
Click
here for our retrospective of June.
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