Around ten years ago, at the peak of the festival boom, the good folk of East Anglia got wind that a new festival was coming to the region. Aside from an abundance of village fetes, some illicit beach raves and the Royal Norfolk Show where the main entertainment consisted of letting down tractor tires and breaking into an unmanned Pepsi challenge van, we had not experienced much in the way of outdoor events in the area. So when we heard one of the big festival promoters wanted to trial an event in Suffolk, hopes were running high that Latitude would become a permanent fixture.
The Festival arrived with its multi-coloured sheep, the Pimm’s on the Lawn bus and daisy-painted picnic tables served by chipper Australian bar staff. Along with a line-up featuring the likes of The Zutons, Patti Smith and Mogwai on the main stages together with Sean Lock and Marcus Brigstocke in the comedy tent and enough after dark activity to keep the then 10k capacity crowd entertained well into the night.
This was a quirky, creative and eclectic event, the likes of which had never been seen before in the area, set in the serene country house surroundings of Henham Park, Southwold that would make even the most machismo succumb to its natural beauty. As hoped, the first Latitude was well received by the locals as well as a hardcore of festival fans from around the country eager to check out the hottest new events on the festival circuit. After a few months we heard plans for the festivals return the following year.
Latitude looking lush by Marc Sethi
Since then we’ve seen the festival grow into a 35k capacity favourite on the UK festival calendar, playing host to artists as diverse as Arcade Fire, Grace Jones, Sigor Ros and Kraftwerk, selling out on a number of occasions and picking up gongs for Best Family Festival and Best Line-up at the prestigious UK Festival Awards along the way.
Now Latitude are looking forward to their 10th anniversary edition and we all know how festivals love to pull out the stops for their milestone birthdays, so what other worldly delights are they laying on for us this year?
The Music
The simplest way to describe the music at Latitude is it’s like listening to BBC 6 Music in a field, only louder and with less repeated tracks. No surprise then that Latitude and the muso’s favourite radio station joined forces a couple of years back to bring the latest and greatest on the indie music scene to the festival.
This year a number of the most enthusiastic acts from previous line-ups will be returning for a special home coming show and to join in the celebrations. These include Laura Marling, Wild Beasts, Caribou, Wolf Alice and Seasick Steve plus The Vaccines, SBTRKT and Alt-J who have now graduated to headline status. Expect extra special performances from this trio of acts as they front up the festival that helped make them who they are today.
Other main stage headliners include Jon Hopkins, Portishead, and working-class-boy-done-good Noel Gallagher who closes the festival on Sunday night with his High Flying Birds. Could this particular booking be a subtle attempt by the festival to sign-off their first 10 years by trying to shake off their middle class image? Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing some banter between the champion of lad culture from the North and the so-called southern fairies who so often frequent this event.
Listen to our Spotify line-up sampler:
Latitude always has a strong undercard and this year is no exception. After taking in the main stage line-ups you’re now faced with the dilemma of figuring out how the heck you’re going to tear yourself away to catch the Alt-J’s and Caribou’s of the future on the smaller Lake Stage, iArena and Alcove where the freshest new talent is showcased.
This year they have some acts that are already creating big waves and are worthy of a main stage slot at any festival, including Shura, Honne, Leon Bridges, Lianne La Havas, Boxed In and Pretty Vicious. Catch these guys for one of those “I saw them just before they broke” moments.
We’re particularly looking forward to catching Psychedelic Garage band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s set, if only for the 16 minutes and 2 seconds it takes to get through their 2013 freak out track, Head On/Pill.
In The Woods by Jack Pasco
And fear not head-bangers, while the day time is a relatively civilised affair, after the headliners have completed their encores and the little ones are all tucked-up the real party starts.
Retro heads will be pleased to hear Guilty Pleasures are set to return to the festival with their greatest musical smashers from the pop and party spectrum, while the likes of DJ EZ, Ben UFO and Roni Size take things back underground. We can’t wait to being taken on trip down DnB memory lane by Roni Size and Reprazent in the Film and Music Arena. The only hope is that simply because he’s playing to a bunch of white, middle-class folk in a rural setting that he doesn’t feel the need to double drop some Dire Straits dub plates, as he did last time he was in town.
Could it get any more chilled?
Latitude has a reputation for being a laid-back affair and you’d think it couldn’t get any more chilled, but new for this year is a brand new chill out zone called Solas – meaning Light in Irish.
By day the area will provide a refuge away from the masses with massages, yoga, treatments, workshops, bubbling hot-tubs and seaweed baths all on offer to soothe the mind, body and soul. As darkness falls, Solas will become an intimate party corner with a sunken piano bar and upbeat tunes spun by ElectroShack for late night dancing and merriment.
For the swimmers
Ever fancied taking a dip in Latitude’s picturesque lake? Well now you can do what you’ve always wanted, and take the plunge as a whole host of swimming activities will be on offer with buff lifeguards at hand to assist.
The weather is usually good at Latitude with only a couple of wet ones on record, so this could well end up being a particularly popular addition to the festival. If only to escape the numerous midges that seemed to make their Latitude debut last year.
And the rest
That’s all the new specials for this year we can think of for now so on with the regular stuff.
Latitude is well-known for its wide ranging culture programming, covering everything from ballet and spoken word through to cabaret and classical music to indulge and inspire. The overarching arts theme for this year is ‘For Richer, For Poorer, For Better, For Worse…’ which explores the growing extremes of rich and poor, social-media oversharing and increasingly intrusive state security agencies.
Let’s just hope the venue won’t be riddled with secret security cameras capturing our every move then.
Let’s not forget the little ones either – the other side of the festival and the reason why it earned the Best Family Festival accolade, which is how it caters for the festi-folk of the future.
The biggest-tablet-craze-going Minecraft, will be featured in the Film and Music Arena as the Minecraft Disco. Part Minecraft buildathon and part surreal club-night inspired by surrealist artworks from the Tate collection, this will make for one crazy evening of music and making. A team of Minecraft experts will also be live on stage building Latitude’s very own dream landscape with contributions from the audience.
Unless you’ve been living in North Korea for past few years, you’ll be familiar with this game. It involves using diamond swords to build virtual worlds, killing zombie pigeons and spending hours on YouTube genning up by watching possibly the most annoying man on the internet. This is Minecraft tipster Markus Notch who sounds a bit like Jimmy Carr, only not as funny, and without the swearing, because it’s for kids you see.
Now you just have to decide on whether you tell the children so they have something to look forward to and face having your ears chewed off for the next few weeks and cries of “is the Minecraft show on yet” upon arrival at the Festival or keep it as a surprise, or just in case anything else you want to see comes up. As if you would…
Counting down
So it’s only a few weeks now until the gates open for the 10th anniversary special edition of Latitude Festival, and the countdown to fun has well and truly begun. The festival has sold out on a couple of occasions and we reckon this year could be close so we suggest you bag your wristbands sooner rather than later. If you don’t think you can handle the whole weekend, or just want to test the water then the festival is putting on camping facilities for day ticket holders. We don’t know of any other events that do this. You really have no excuse.
See you at the Minecraft disco!
Latitude Festival takes place at Henham Park, Southwold from Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th July 2015. For tickets and more information see our Latitude guide.
