A Day in the Life of MODA: Caitlin

In MODA's new summer series about the lives of its bloggers over the summer break, I take you on backstage at a British Festival. My band played Latitude festival in Suffolk, UK recently, and I recorded my day as an official performer...

8.07 am - I woke up like this

British festivals are notoriously hard to get a good night's sleep in - you fall asleep almost freezing to death and wake up on the face of the sun. I also had to deal with a good load of noise from neighbouring tents and crew setting up.

9.30 am - breakfast

The artists' bar featured a wonderful food selection (I'm very lucky to say I've only ever camped in the artists' area at festivals...), and I sampled some of their English breakfasts as a wake-up call. It was great! Kept me going for a good few hours. I was more happy about it than I appear in this photo.

11.00 - explore the site

We had a couple of hours before shows we wanted to see started, so we had a wander around the festival site to see what was about. It was a beautiful day and we found some really cool stalls, as well as worked out where our stage was.

12.30 - watch some comedy

The beginning of the day didn't have much music going for it, but there was some awesome comedy to see. A favourite from that day was Reggie Watts, a comedian/musician whose surreal set was a wonderful start to the festival.

2.30 - watch some friends' comedy

A good friend of mine, Kieran Hodgson, is a comedian, and happened to be also playing at Latitude. We went along to see his new show, Maestro. It was amazing. Kieran has a knack for excellent storytelling and impressions, while retaining his integrity of character. The show is a gripping tale of Kieran's search for love while trying to compose a symphony. If you're in the UK this summer, try your best to check it out.

5.00 - back to the tent

We had a little time before we needed to rehearse, so I headed back to the tent and had a bit of a rest. Also, the artists' bar has far better bathrooms than the general area, so it's good to take advantage of that.

6.00 - rehearsal

We had to go over our setlist, since stuff was changed at the last minute. We assembled and went through our songs, and had a chat about what we'd all been doing at the festival. 

7.00 - dinner

Met up with Kieran, my other friend Stuart and Kieran's tech Cassie for some dinner, drinks and music. We got some burgers, beer (I remind you the UK drinking age is 18) and watched CHURCHES. They were very good live, considering their music is very electronic. Plus, the weather was amazing, which only made things better.

9.00 - tent call

We had to be at the Cabaret Tent at 9.00 to do stage makeup, warm up and prepare to go on. I said goodbye to Kieran, Stuart and Cassie and headed over to the tent (with a small interlude of running back to my tent to get my costume).

11.00 - on stage

We played 3 one-song sets, separated by about half an hour each. Sadly, one of our members got injured during the first song, so another member had to learn all her parts in about 20 minutes. She did amazingly well though, and we realised we needed to prepare for this situation in the future.

1.00 - bed

After a very very long day, I decided to hit the sack after my performance, I got up early Sunday morning to see Cassie's theatre show, so I waned to ensure I got proper rest.

So that was my Saturday at Latitude Festival, hope you enjoyed hearing about my British Summer!