Thursday

'I thought the Central Line was bad!' So comments one punter as hundreds of people bottleneck on the bridge between the woods and the main arena on the opening night of Latitude Festival 2010. The main arena had opened earlier in the evening to offer a smattering of entertainment in the performance and spoken word tents, but as midnight approaches everyone's thoughts turn to the night's big attraction. Despite being probably the most famous singer ever to come out of Wales, the festival has opted for scheduling Tom Jones's midnight performance on the In The Woods stage which, as you might have guessed, is in the woods. It's also not particularly big, meaning that the surrounding area is full to capacity well before the silver fox takes to the stage, and many are left disappointed as marshals take the decision to stop anyone else entering the area.

After a delay caused by 'technical difficulties', the Welsh demigod takes to the stage to rapturous applause, followed immediately by excited yelps of 'Sex Bomb! Sex Bomb!'. Despite a few grumbles, including a comment that the mic he's been provided with must have been bought at a 'jumble sale', Tom proceeds to give the kind of poised performance you'd expect from such a stone cold pro. The whole premise for the appearance is so he can give his brand new album, Praise and Blame, a live run through and those fortunate enough to be present receive the new songs generously, despite the ongoing calls for Sex Bomb, and everyone seems to go away into the night happy. As well they should.

Friday

With yesterday's early arrivers emerging bleary eyed from their tents and thousands more revellers still streaming through the gates, the first full day of the festival gets under way. With the music stages not kicking off until the afternoon, it's left to the other arenas to entertain. Phill Jupitus and Friends (he has three, in case you're wondering) pull a fair crowd to the Comedy Arena, but those in the know - a hell of a lot as it turns out, much to the chagrin of those left queuing outside - head straight for the Theatre Arena where the ever-brilliant Daniel Kitson is performing his 'It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later' show. With the sun now in full shine, a healthy crowd gathers on the riverbanks around the Waterfront Stage for a dose of culture from Black Ballet, a ballet company made up of black and Asian dancers whose eclectic mix of classic and contemporary dance brings a welcome serenity to proceedings.

Glasgow's hairiest four-piece Kassidy take to the Obelisk Arena stage for a set entirely fitting for its sunny mid-afternoon slot which is warmly received by the crowd. Less fitting are We Are The Magic who are up next, their slightly self-indulgent set proving somewhat uninspiring for those gathered, many of whom start to drift away. Instantly more charming are the lovely The Unthanks, who engage the crowd straight away with a sincere hello and a declaration of how excited they are to be playing at Latitude, before reeling off a selection of their haunting modern life madrigals, with a bit of clog dancing thrown in for good measure. 'You'll all be wearing them next year' declares Becky Unthank. Hockey cause a flurry of stageward excitement simply by taking to the stage and launching straight into Song Away. Risky perhaps, kicking off a set with your best and best-known track, but it pays off. The energy it generates remains throughout, the band's new material going down well and suggesting they've a fair bit left in the creative tank. 'You guys are one of the coolest crowds we've played to in England' announces Benjamin Grubin in appreciation.

A huge crowd are drawn to the Film & Music Arena - with yet more once again left disappointed outside - for a screening of the brilliant Four Lions and a subsequent Q&A with the film's godlike director Chris Morris. At the polar opposite end of the cultural scale, The Feeling entertain a fair few people who like The Feeling in the Word Arena, whilst the lovely Laura Marling makes a classy showing at the Obelisk Arena, followed by the bonkers force of nature that is Empire of the Sun whose wonderfully camp and colourful performance is a breath of fresh air.

As headliners around the site set about wrapping up the day's live music, Everything Everything give a cracking performance on The Lake Stage that justifies not only the fact that they've been handed a stage headline slot but also the attention they've garnered so far this year. At the Word Arena, The National give the kind of performance that you'd enjoy if you really know and love The National but which offers little in the way of enjoyment for anyone else.

The all-conquering Florence wheels her Machine out onto the Obelisk Arena stage to much fanfare and sets about giving a composed and theatrical performance which does more or less justify Miss Welch having been gifted one of the weekend's three main headline slots. Anyone who witnessed Florence and the Machine's recent Glasto performance will know that it was high on passion but slightly questionable on the vocal front, possibly an indication of how much the performance meant to Florence Welch and that maybe she was trying just a bit too hard. Tonight's performance is almost the complete opposite, extremely well delivered but lacking a bit on passion. Putting aside the huge success that she has enjoyed, it has to be kept in mind that, to all intents and purposes, Florence Welch is still cutting her teeth, albeit on increasingly large and high-profile stages. She's genuinely good at what she does - very good in fact - her music and lyrics a tonic to many popular alternatives, and given another year or two, Florence and the Machine could be truly great.

Saturday

With the weather playing games in the morning, flitting from blazing sunshine to pouring rain and back again, the Comedy Arena becomes an instant draw. Whilst the weather may have been the reason many people are there, the quality of the comedy makes many of them remain long after the weather has settled on sunshine. The more text book but still very funny routines of Jimeoin, Micky Flanagan and Kevin Bridges sit nicely alongside the esoteric offerings of Josie Long and her chav astronaut character and Dan Renton Skinner's genius creation Angelos Epithiemiou, whose 'Cat Crept In' skit is one of the comedy wonders of the modern world.

Although Corrine Bailey Rae, performing at the Obelisk Arena, may not be everyone's cup of mint tea, she's an undeniable talent and it's good to see her back after the turmoil of her personal life over the last couple of years. Providing black chalk to Bailey Rae's soft cheese is Frank Turner who's up next, followed by Ming the Merciless, or Tim Booth as he's now calling himself. There seems to be quite a buzz about the fact that James are playing, a buzz rewarded with an enjoyable performance from indie's longest standing take a seat demanders. The late afternoon sees a bout between two of indies most likely to, with The Maccabees taking to the stage at the Obelisk Arena and Noah and the Whale in the Word Arena, both of whom give crowd pleasig performances. Last year's surprise reinventors The Horrors are next up at the Word Arena, giving an ethereal performance which relies mostly on the album that people liked.

A surprisingly large crowd are present to greet Crystal Castles over at the Obelisk Arena. Not that they don't deserve a large crowd; just not this crowd. It's not for nothing that Latitude has a reputation as the most middle class festival in existence, and you can't help suspecting that many of those gathered aren't fully aware of what they're in store for. Within seconds of the duo taking to the stage though, the penny drops from a great height, smashing into people's craniums. The indomitable Alice Glass kicks off with a hate-fuelled rant about a gang rape and how the perpetrators should be dealt with. 'Castrate them! Castrate them!' she screeches into her microphone. At this point, many watching are unaware of the distressing reports of a gang rape having taken place on site on Thursday evening - the incident Glass is referring to - and assume she's just mental. The pair proceed to give their usual visceral performance, until Glass starts crowd surfing, punches a fan in the face for allegedly groping her and cuts the set short, to much confusion and booing. As wonderful as CC are, it has to be said that this was misguided scheduling on a fairly large scale.

Belle and Sebastian hate being called twee apparently. If they hated it that much, they'd try and stop being twee. As twee Scottish indie legends Belle and Sebastian take to the stage to headline the Obelisk Arena, they are greeted by a massive crowd, most of whom will soon remember that they know about one and a half Belle and Sebastian songs, though that's by the by. The performance is spirited and seems to go down well with most of the audience.

out and out highlight of the festival though goes to The XX. The XX's progress over the last couple of years has been fairly unique, somehow managing to be both slow burning and rapid all at once. This is perhaps down to the fact that any buzz surrounding them is based solely on how fantastic their music is, something which they underline with tonight's headline performance in the Word Arena. It's difficult to define why this performance is so good - the band offer little in way of showmanship - but the brooding atmosphere, the excitement of the adoring crowd and the songs - oh, the songs - make this far and away the performance of the weekend. Surely the Mercury Music lot have shown themselves up enough in recent years to avoid giving their increasingly diminished award to The XX this year. Not that they need it.

Sunday

Yet more beautiful weather greets everyone as they head out for the final day of the festival. The cast of Hair The Musical kick the afternoon off in style with a really great performance of a selection of songs from the show on the Waterfront Stage, the combination of the sunshine, the setting and the music creating a surprisingly memorable event for audience and performers alike.

Hotly tipped newcomers Egyptian Hip Hop appear on the Sunrise Arena and account well for themselves in front of a fairly intimate crowd, all seemingly savvy enough not to be let down by the sight of three Mancunian teenagers offering little in the way of hip hop or Egyptology. After the awesome Yeasayer do their awesome thing at the Word Arena, a rather nasty clash rears its head. The Temper Trap at the Obelisk Arena are up against not only the infinitely wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg over at the Word Arena but also living comedy legend Emo Phillips at the Comedy Arena. Anyone with the slightest interest in comedy will have realised the need to catch Phillips's first UK appearance in over five years, though the audience is an interesting mix of not only older fans but wide eyed youngsters who have no hope of knowing who he is. His set is characteristically masterful, his odd and awkward onstage persona used to great effect in delivering a set of deceptively well crafted material. A genuine treat.

One trick pony Darwin Deez takes to the stage for the Sunrise Arena's final headline slot, the band's hip hop laden entrance proving to be the most interesting part of the set. There is a lot of love at present for Grizzly Bear, understandably so given their intriguing brand of leftfield folk rock. Live though, particularly under the microscope of the Word Arena's headline slot, it feels like there's something missing and their performance slides towards dull. Another scheduling misfire perhaps.

Wrapping up the whole shebang for most people over at the Obelisk Arena meanwhile are Vampire Weekend, who it's fair to say have plenty of catchy and well known tunes in their arsenal to make this a suitably inclusive headline slot. Whether they entirely deserved it is another matter, but on the whole it seems to do the job and they manage to tick the box of finishing on a high with a great rendition of fans' favourite Walcott.

It's probably fair to say that this wasn't an entirely vintage year for Latitude, not least of all because it had already set the bar extremely high for itself during its relatively short history. The weekend did however succeed in once again proving that there really is no other festival like Latitude, which is no mean feat given the copious number of fests that now populate the calendar. It's perhaps churlish to moan that there's too much good stuff at Latitude, but with so many varied arenas and so many great acts appearing you do spend much of the festival wondering what you might be missing out on, either because there's too much going on at once or because you're left out due to many of the tents only holding a fraction of the paying customers at any given time. (NOTE TO LATITUDE ORGANISERS - PUT SPEAKERS UP OUTSIDE EACH OF THE TENTED ARENAS SO THAT THOSE LEFT OUTSIDE CAN AT LEAST LISTEN TO WHAT'S GOING ON; YOU'VE DONE IT FOR THE COMEDY ARENA, NOW DO IT FOR EVERYWHERE ELSE).

Latitude will doubtless continue to grow and thrive, and deservedly so, but with a few bumps still to iron out and the devastating blow of not one but two separate reports of serious sexual assaults on young girls at this year's festival, which will have dealt a body blow to Latitude's (deserved) reputation as a very family friendly festival, organisers will need to regroup and tackle the various issues that have presented themselves to ensure that Latitude returns bigger and better next year.

Philip Goodfellow