Longitude Festival 2014, Dublin

Last weekend I hopped on a plane to Dublin to go to Longitude festival, which is essentially Latitude's smaller, younger, Irish sister. Being completely honest, I wasn't even aware it was on when it debuted last year and I wouldn't be surprised if it passed by again this year with a lot of people not realising it existed. I saw a lot of coverage relating to Latitude in the lead up to the weekend, but very little about Longitude, so I've taken it upon myself to sing its praises!

The only festival I've been to previously was Leeds years ago, so I was extremely excited to get back into the festival spirit. Live music is one of my favourite things in the world and as far as the line up went, it basically consisted of everyone I love at the moment. There's also the other small factor that it is a no camping festival, I assume due to its smaller size. I've done the whole camping/gross toilets thing at Leeds and whilst it is good fun and I definitely think it's part of the experience at some festivals, I can't tell you how nice it was to have a comfy bed at the end of the day and more importantly, the luxury of a shower! I didn't even need to take dry shampoo. Crazy.

We were staying in a hotel (Bewley's Hotel Leopordstown, FYI) which did the job of acting as a base perfectly and even ran their own little bus service to the festival site every day which was really useful. The festival was held in Marlay Park with the biggest stage in the main part of the site and then bridges off to other areas. The feel of the place was so relaxed and there was such a happy atmosphere, it warmed my little heart! Food-wise, a special shout out goes to Dave's Wood-Fired Pizza Company for the best sweet potato fries I've EVER HAD. Oh, and to the ice cream man we single-handedly kept in business (sometimes all you need in life is sunshine and a 99.)

Now onto the important bit, the music. I won't list everything we saw because that would just be boring for you, but I'll try to pick out a few highlights. I have to give a special mention to George Ezra, HAIM and James Vincent McMorrow who were absolutely incredible, as expected, and also to Bastille and Rudimental for putting on a corker of a show! Sam Smith and Disclosure were two acts who really surprised me in terms of just how much I loved their sets and I am also now Hozier's new biggest fan - definitely check him out if you haven't already, he really caught my...erm...ear? 

So, without further ado, here are a few snaps from the weekend... 

The Edinburgh Fringe - Part 2

During our short stay in Edinburgh, we came across a few Scottish stereotypes - loads of bag pipes, a guy dressed as Braveheart, and a ridiculous amount of kilt shops. At first, it was a bit of a joke - obviously it's expected that you'll see a couple of places catering for the kilt-wearing individual, but we stumbled across the first explosion of tartan within two minutes of our arrival. Soon, we realised just how many there are - we were walking past three kilt shops, a whisky shop, two more kilt shops, a shop selling decorative tins of shortbread and haggis...it felt a bit like the big chase in a cartoon where the background is just on a loop.

I couldn't believe that so many of them could stay in business. Maybe I'm just naive, but I didn't think anyone actually bought any of that stuff, apart from genuine Scottish people who need kilts for weddings and big Scottish parties full of other Scottish people wearing kilts. Apparently not. Later, we were sat by an Australian tourist who was clearly loving the traditional attire. She was dressed in a tartan waistcoat and flatcap combo... pretty bold.

Anyway, whilst we embraced the Scottish cliches (not the haggis), we were keen to experience the eclectic nature of the festival. The atmosphere was amazing. The town was bustling with visitors and locals, as well as street performers and people promoting their own shows. We'd only booked a couple of things to see before we got there, so it was difficult to know where to start - when people are throwing leaflets at you and making every single show sound brilliant it can be quite overwhelming! Amongst other things, we chose some great Jazz a cappella and a musical open-mic comedy piece set inside a pub. Really, it was just a room made to look like a pub, and they didn't have a real bar, but I reckon one of the older women in the audience had downed a couple of whiskies before the show. She didn't really have a concept of personal space and kept touching the actors - one was targeted in particular, poor guy. She was a bit odd, but the music was brilliant.

My personal highlights were the two shows we'd booked for the evenings. On our first night, we went to see Simon Amstell's newest stand-up show, Numb. I've been a fan since the Popworld days, but I've only ever seen one recording of him doing stand-up. I'd mainly the seen him presenting Buzzcocks or more recently in his sitcom, Grandma's House, so I was hoping he would live up to my expectations. He definitely did. 'Awkward' is a word often used in reference to Simon, but I don't feel like it's put on or that he plays up to the label, it's just genuinely what he's like. His comedy is self-ridiculing, self-analytical and personal. You come out of the show feeling like he's laid himself bare, but somehow managed to make it hilarious rather than uncomfortable. At the end my cheeks were aching from laughter and I'm even more of a fan now than I was before.

On the last night, we'd booked to see the Blues Brothers. It was such a good way to end our time at the festival - the Brothers and their band were amazing, they cracked out all the classic tunes and the moves to go with them. As Jake and Elwood became sweatier, the trombone player's shirt was getting increasingly more undone, and the audience were getting more and more into it. The 50s moves were coming out and everyone was on their feet. For an hour, we were transported to a rhythm and blues club in Chicago and it was so much fun.

I've never been to Edinburgh before, but I loved it as a city and the Fringe was incredible. For just over three weeks the whole place becomes a hub of creativity, providing hundreds of venues for people to showcase their talent. You have the opportunity to experience so many different things and I can't wait to take advantage by going for a lengthier visit next year.

The Edinburgh Fringe - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to head up to Edinburgh for the end of the Fringe. It was a spur of the moment thing, a friend and I decided that after being home for two months, we needed some new surroundings and so we went ahead and booked a little trip. There's nothing better than a last-minute break, and this made it really exciting, but it also meant that because we didn't have that much time to plan ahead, a lot of the places to stay were either extortionately expensive or completely booked up. We ended up taking a bit of a risk, but it paid off.

We stayed in a Snoozebox, described on its website as a 'temporary hotel' (if you're interested, take a look here) which moves around to cater for different events. There's photos on there too, so we had an idea of what to expect, but we weren't quite prepared for how much it would live up to the latter part of its name...

On arrival, we struggled to find it. Now I'm the first to admit that my map reading skills are shocking, but even I could tell we were in the right area, and seeing as it was described as a 'village', we didn't think we'd be able to miss it. But we did. Eventually we ended up asking in a nearby restaurant and were told that two other girls had been in looking for the same place, so that was promising. Luckily, the guy was really helpful and pointed us in the right direction - he told us it was located in an 'old derelict car park' just around the corner. It definitely didn't say that on TripAdvisor.

When we eventually arrived, the hotel had an interesting decor from the outside....it looked a bit like a prison. I quite liked this though - as a big Prison Break fan I was prepared to play the role of a female Michael Scofield if necessary (the difference being if we wanted to leave we could just walk out instead of going through the whole origami birds fiasco). The inside of our room was literally tiny. I was expecting small and box-like, but more of an IKEA flat-pack furniture box than a cereal box. I don't know how the photographer managed to make it look so deceivingly big, that was some impressive work.

The sizing was a bit of a shock at first, not because it was an issue but just because we weren't expecting it. On further inspection, it had everything we needed and more (how they managed to fit a flat-screen tv in there I do not know, good shout Snoozebox people) with a wet room the size of a wardrobe and ridiculously comfy beds. It was cosy, felt safe, and was in a great location for the station - by the end of the festival we'd grown stupidly attached to our new home and didn't want to leave. The one thing I will say is make sure you are totally comfortable with the person you're staying with because there is no room for modesty....the hole in the bathroom door acting as a handle makes sure of that. Also, because all the plumbing is portable (at least I'm guessing that's the reason) it can make some really dodgy noises. Like, scary, grinding noises every time you turn on the tap. But Michael Scofield wouldn't care about a few rickety pipes, would he? I'd definitely recommend booking into a Snoozebox if you ever get the chance, its little quirks are what made it such a brilliant place to stay.

After the accommodation I'll just say a quick word on where we ate. My friend and I like food a lot (tragically, the Great British Bake-Off is currently the highlight of our week), so it was important that we found somewhere nice. After reading about it on the internet before we left, we came across this amazing veggie cafe, Henderson's, on our way to one of the venues (website here). I think the fact we went back there twice in the space of two and a half days speaks for itself - they had a huge selection of amazing salads, hot meals and very importantly for me, soup and freshly-baked bread. I have a thing about soup. I became really lazy with cooking in the last year of uni and basically lived off it thanks to the 2 for £3 deal at Tesco, so I like to think that makes me a bit of an expert. It doesn't, it just means that I know my Moroccan chicken from my puy lentil and vine-ripened tomato (the first one has chicken in, the second one doesn't). Anyway, my point is that Henderson's soup, like everything else we tried, was really good, so you should definitely eat there if you get the chance. They also had a deli upstairs where you could get things to take-away so even if you don't have the time to sit, you can still grab a sandwich or salad.

Food and shelter is important, but the real reason we went to Edinburgh was to experience the festival, and that's what I'll talk about in part 2.