Friday 16th until Sunday 18th July 2010 @ Henham Park, Suffolk
Featuring Performances From: Florence And The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Rich Hall, Tongue Fu, Tom Jones

Latitude isn’t really about the music. Of course they have music going on – Florence And The Machine were brilliant live, much better than I expected – but where Latitude excels is in the arts, the poetry, theatre, cabaret, comedy etc.

Highlights included lyrical genius-ness from Ed Sheeran (what an unexpected delight! If you don’t know his music, Google him now! Now, I say!), Rich Hall’s drunken stand-up set in the Comedy Arena, Reader’s Wives DJing at the Cabaret Tent with their 80’s disco campness, and a woman in the woods who did aerial acrobatics suspended by her hair alone. I wish I had got her name, I was mesmerised and forgot I was writing a review at all! I also loved Tongue Fu in the Poetry Tent – poetry set to impromptu jazz, one of which, a poem by Chris Redmond about getting poo in his eye at Glastonbury, nearly made me wet myself laughing. The juxtaposition of poo and jazz was perfect.

Latitude is a very tightly run, well organised festival. It lacks some of the joyful chaos I usually associate with the word ‘festival’ – not a lot of crazy costumes or general messiness - the whole experience is more grown-up and sedate than say, Shambala, but having said that, a festival is what you make it, and the plus side of the organisation is that it feels like a very safe place to be. If you feel that you are a bit too grown-up and calmed down these days for festivals, you might like Latitude.

The camping was lovely, being in the woods. The woods in general feature heavily in the Latitude experience – Tom Jones played in the forest on Thursday night, but it was all new stuff (boo!) - and some inspired person had dyed the sheep luminous colours. A little bit cruel or a little bit wonderful? Or both, possibly…

Arthur Smith (Radio 4 Comedian) described Latitude as being like ‘Waitrose become tents,’ which is a good description, if you imagine some really awesome theatrical acts in the dairy aisle and comedians and poets bantering by the deli counter.

www.latitudefestival.co.uk

Anna Freeman