Latitude offers a wider choice of entertainment for all

Latitude Festival is in its fourth year at the beautiful location of Henham Park near Southwold in Suffolk. The award-winning festival is very keen to be thought of as more than just a music festival and is rightly proud of the calibre of performers that it attracts across different genres.

In addition to a host of big names in the music world like Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Pet Shop Boys, and the coup of a rare solo set by Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Latitude also offers comedy, theatre, dance, poetry, literary events and film. A few of the names in the Comedy tent over the weekend are Jo Brand, Sean Lock, Dave Gorman, Ed Byrne, and the theatre is hosting events from the National Theatre, The Lyric Hammersmith, and the Royal Shakespeare Company amongst others; there is dance from the likes of Sadler’s Wells, the Royal Opera House and Avant Garde. The long list of poets includes Simon Armitage, Andrew Motion, Jeffrey Lewis, Jackie Kay and Brian Patten. The Literary venue holds events involving Vivienne Westwood, Frank Skinner, Jake Chapman and Robin Ince, and one of the many sessions in the Film and Music venue is an interview with the director Stephen Frears by the actor David Morrissey.

The programme, which is like a textbook, is expensive at £8 but is a valuable resource and has extensive listings – at every moment of each day, there is a wide range of potential events to attend.

The festival is also boasting about its 'green credentials' which in practical terms are the recycling points, compost loos and encouraging people to use public transport to get to the site. They have arranged deals on rail and coach travel and the running of the coaches and shuttle buses to and from the site is extremely well organised and efficient.

The capacity is deliberately kept small at 25,000 so that it doesn't feel too crowded and so that festival-goers can mostly get to see the bands and events that they're interested in up close. The camping areas are colour-coded and there's a specific area for family camping, as well as 'boutique camping' for those who are willing to pay extra for a bit of comfort.

The lake is a central feature with a couple of stages on the camping side – Waterfront and Sunrise Arena, and the majority of venues on the far side, along with loads of food and merchandise stalls. There are deckchairs on the bank opposite the Waterfront stage and the ingenious walkway for some of the performers to access the stage across the lake, which is just below the surface so that it gives the illusion of them walking on water to get there. Some of the famous spray-painted sheep are along the banks and the whole scene looks beautiful after dark with the trees lit by coloured light and 3D images projected on to a fine spray of water next to the bridge.

The main venue for the big music acts is the open air Obelisk Arena and in addition to the Sunrise Arena, there is also an open air Lake Stage and Uncut Arena marquee. The Literary and Poetry tents are located either side of the main access route in to the site from the bridge, and there's a lovely theatre tent and also Film and Music, Cabaret and Comedy tents. The Comedy venue has screens either side of it on the outside so that people can sit and watch when the tent is full, which is often. BBC Radio 4, 6 Music and Radio 2 are also on site and broadcasting live across the weekend.

There's quite a wide age range of punters and the festival is clearly family friendly with activities for children and guidance at events on whether they're suitable for kids.

Latest Updates