Latitude Music Festival

This festival is one for all those who like things a little bit less mainstream, a little bit quieter, a little bit more intellectual. From humble beginnings, the Latitude Festival has really taken off in recent years and is now one of the biggest events in the music, spoken word and poetry calendars. Yes, you read that right- this is a festival which combines music, performance and poetry to give the audience a really unique experience which is unlike anything else on the festival circuit.

It really is a unique event, take last year’s line-up for example; rubbing shoulders with The Doves, Thom Yorke and The Gossip were comedians like Jo Brand and Ed Byrne and esteemed and critically-acclaimed poets such as the former Poet-Laureate Andrew Motion. Now that’s an eclectic line-up if ever I saw one, and it’s one which no other festival in the country could really hope to emulate. Because of its diverse range of events, there is a different kind of crowd at Latitude than one might find at a more mainstream music festival, but you shouldn’t let that put you off. Latitude is fast becoming one of the biggest festivals in the calendar and you should head there now before it gets too big and the wonderful spirit which is there presently is still about.

Latitude really takes its inspiration from the European festival scene, by offering festival-goers different experiences, literary, musical, cerebral, artistic and not merely playing loud music as loud as it can possibly be played. Despite having some of the heavyweights of the music and poetry worlds the festival is very laid back with many young performers, particularly on the performance poetry circuit, making their breakthrough performances there. It really is a place where you can go and, in a few years time, you will be saying: “Yes, I saw her/him back before they were famous”; every year you’re guaranteed to be in gigs that, in years to come, people will pretend they were at as well. You can’t get any better than that!