It’s Ireland’s newest weekend festival, and is acting as an experimental ‘sister festival’ to Suffolk’s Latitude, sharing several acts with its older sibling. Longitude isn't quite offering all the variety being shown off across the pond - comedy fans and Bloc Party obsessives are right out of luck, while Beach House are playing a conflicting solo gig in Iveagh Gardens rather than joining the crowd in Marley. Still there’s more than enough compelling reasons to spend (a hopefully sunny) three days in the Rathfarnham park...
Those lucky enough to be able to start festivities on Friday afternoon will undoubtedly have an unfair advantage over those who are stuck in work until the evening. The hard-working, math-rocking local chaps from Cast of Cheers kick things off on the main stage at 14:15. If you’re up for a more mellow introduction to the fest, prodigious Derry songwriter SOAK (aka 16 year-old Bridie Monds-Watson) will start things off over on the Woodlands Stage at 14:30.
The rest of Friday is full of worthy up-and-coming acts - including Tom Odell and Django Django - but most will be anticipating the potentially electric closing double-bill of Foals and Phoenix. The latter French rockers will headline the first night with a healthy 90-minute set. Their latest album Bankrupt may not quite scale the heights of its superb predecessor Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, but few modern pop-rockers have a back catalogue so catchy and cheery.
Actually, strike that last remark from the record, because Saturday’s headliners Vampire Weekend have three giddy albums worth of tracks that should come alive... em... live. Even those who dismissed the New York band as overly quirky and disposable based on their early work might be pleasantly surprised by their gloriously inventive third album Modern Vampires of the City. If word from Glastonbury is to be believed, their set is likely to prove an early highlight of the festival season.
Not that the rest of Saturday is too shabby either, mind. It’s a particularly good day for fans of dance and local music. Ireland is represented well by the likes of current hot properties The Villagers and Kodaline, while the Danish Trentemøller is one of the electronic masters of the weekend. Le Galaxie, kicking off the second day at 14:00, is the best of both worlds - a much-acclaimed local dance act.
You’ll also want to be there first thing Sunday, with Japandroids taking main stage bright and early at 14:00 (well, it will seem early for those trudging their way through day three). I must admit I’m somewhat of a latecomer to the American duo’s brand of retro, unpretentious, hard power-rock, and have missed their Irish performances to date. But having fallen head over heels for their wildly energetic Celebration Rock LP (their third), they are this writer’s most anticipated band of the fest (if, alas, restricted to a mere forty-five minute long set).
Once again, there’s no shortage of intriguing smaller acts playing the rest of the day - such as Milo Greene, Flume and Frightened Rabbit - but most revelers will be naturally gravitating towards Main Stage for the festival’s homestretch. Few will want to miss the Hot Chip / Yeah Yeah Yeahs double bill. They’re playing at 18:00 and 19:30 respectively.
But it’s those iconic art-rockers Kraftwerk who will bring festivities to a close with a 3D concert. So confident are the organisers that this will be the ‘main event’ that the two other stages will be closed to allow everyone to soak in the experimental German techno (the DJ tent will remain open, though). We will all be the robots as we take to the Autobahn (aka the M50) at Longitude’s end.
That’s just a fraction of the live acts. You’ll also get a dedicated DJ stage and all the questionable food outlets and weird art setups you’d expect from a new boutique festival. And, if the optimistic weather forecasters are to be believed, you mightn’t even need to bring your wellies.
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