This site is operated by Fizzwig Designs publishers of Ipswich24 magazine and operators of www.ipswich24.co.uk and www.eastanglia24.co.uk. It is intended to assist participants and visitors to the Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Suffolk. We are based in Suffolk and therefore have a wealth of local knowledge to help make your festival experience even more enjoyable.

We will endeavour to include all the latest Festival News which will regularly be updated, plus you will find links in our "General Information" section to local information and places of interest.

LATEST NEWS

MUSIC ARENA ADDITIONS
Uncut Arena
*MARTHA WAINWRIGHT* *JULIAN COPE* *HOWLING BELLS* *SAM ISAAC*

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Obelisk Arena
*WHITE LIES* *FIELDS*

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Sunrise Arena
*NIC DAWSON KELLY* *TALLULAH RENDALL*
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As the first signs of summer begin to shine through, the line-up for this year’s Latitude Festival is starting to fill up. The very best actors, writers, directors, dancers, musicians and performers are flocking to the sunrise coast to be a part of this festival of inspiration and enchantment . With so much more to be announced across all of the arenas, this is really shaping up to be the arts and music event of the year!
• The Uncut Arena standing tall on top of the hill looking down over the beautiful site of Latitude will host the utterly fantastic Martha Wainwright.
• Eccentric and visionary rock musician, modern antiquarian and one time frontman of post-punk Liverpool outfit The Teardrop Explodes, Julian Cope will be performing in the Uncut Arena on the Friday night.
Howling Bells are making everyone sit up and take notice. Formed in Australia and now based in the UK, the band lurch from blues fuelled rock to country-rock lamentations.
am Isaac played early on the Lake stage at Latitude, last year. This year he will be lighting up the Uncut Arena on the Sunday complete with his full backing band.
The hotly tipped White Lies will play the Obelisk Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Drawing on influences from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Joni Mitchell, London based songstress Tallulah Rendall will be bringing her soulful acoustic sound to the Latitude Festival come Sunday morning.
Headlining this year’s event on the Obelisk Arena, Scottish art-rock heroes Franz Ferdinand play their only English festival show exclusively at Latitude on the Friday night.
READ MORE»

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More Than Just a Music Festival

Latitude is so much more than a music festival. This year’s Latitude can boast the exclusive involvement of BAFTA in the Film and Music Arena; a quite astonishing comedy line-up including Bill Bailey, Omid Djalili, Ross Noble, Frankie Boyle, Rich Hall and Simon Amstell in the Comedy Arena.
The Literary Arena is packed full of top authors including Simon Armitage, Hanif Kureishi and Iain Banks as well as Latitude favourites Vox ‘N’ Roll, WordTheatre and Marcus Brigstocke’s Early Edition. The National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, RSC and The Bush all bring exciting new shows to the Theatre Arena. Plus stellar poets Adrian Mitchell, John Hegley and Carol Ann Duffy are all confirmed for the Poetry Arena hosted by Luke Wright. The Cabaret Arena welcomes the ever hilarious and inventive Vauxhallville with plenty more exciting performances to announce in the pipeline. And that’s not to mention the awe-inspiring Sadler’s Wells who will perform their world class dance on a beautiful stage floating in the middle of the lake as will The Irrepressibles with their orchestral brilliance.

Jon Dunn who curates the music says:

“The programme of music at last year's festival ranged from the emotionally charged, with the melancholic yet uplifting The National, the rousing Rodrigo Y Gabriela and the most remarkable band of last summer the mighty Arcade Fire, to music press must-sees such as Bat For Lashes, Patrick Wolf and New Young Pony Club, then add to this the blues man Seasick Steve with his worldly tales and two string guitar.
Now in its third edition Latitude has defined its musical personality. It’s music that is interesting and exciting; great bands, brilliant artists and the music that I love. I’m excited with our headliners for this year’s festival and looking forward to announcing further great acts over the forthcoming weeks. Franz Ferdinand will be phenomenal, Interpol will rock and captivate and the beautifully ethereal and epic Sigur Ros will soar.”

Working towards a greener festival and with help from London’s Arcola Theatre, this year the Theatre Arena at Latitude is to be entirely fuel cell powered. It will be an area positively buzzing with creativity and inspiration, hosting a wealth of bespoke productions and performances exclusive to the festival, some of the biggest names in contemporary, physical, classical, performance and local theatre are coming to the Suffolk coast.

The National Theatre will be bringing a play chosen from their New Connections project to Latitude Festival - an ambitious new writing programme for young actors creating theatre. Established 15 years ago in response to a widespread demand for challenging new plays for young people to perform, the National Theatre New Connections commissions 10 new plays every year, penned by some of the hottest talent in world theatre. The plays are then brought to life through hundreds of productions, created by thousands of young actors, technicians, designers and directors, from across the UK, Ireland and further afield. This year’s writers are: Moira Buffini, Frantic Assembly & Bryony Lavery, Anna Furse & Little Angel, Abi Morgan, Mark Ravenhill, Peter Tabern, Jack Thorne, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Nigel Williams and Nicholas Wright.

Probably the most famous classical theatre company in the world, the Royal Shakespeare Company, brings to Latitude a selection of specially commissioned mini epic plays. These new works take the form of a series of 5 minute works of concentrated energy, passion and vibrancy. Each penned by a different writer, the writers, directors and actors will fearlessly wade in to investigate the wildest topics and areas of thought, each of the plays taking on a handful of essential classical themes including love - war –competitive insults – music – kings – queens – paupers – harlots – religious types – ruptured families – heartbreak – mistaken identities – journeys – shipwrecks – cross dressing – ghosts – fools. This new commission is an enlightening introduction to anyone who thought the RSC was only about preserving Shakespeare. Be prepared to be very surprised!
Walter Raleigh’s School Of Night was a clandestine and arcane underground sect of artists, thinkers, writers, scientists and spies, who some scholars believe wrote Shakespeare's plays.
Now, maverick genius Ken Campbell and his team revive the School of Night for the 21st century, improvising plays and poems from any period, always in pursuit of their first secret commission. The School of Night has been known to explore Elizabethan humours by performing them in modern styles, and examine great acting via master classes on gastromancy. Audience members may have impromptu sonnets created for them or be taught "the secrets of crowd scenes". The show mixes Ken’s unique and infamous surreal monologues with a team of highly skilled improvisers capable of playing in any theatrical style and keen to rise to any challenge.
The award-winning nationally and internationally renowned touring theatre company, Paines Plough and the new writing theatre company nabokov, present the brilliantly buzzy Crazy Love by Che Walker. A blast of fresh air, this 50 minute play is set at a wedding reception. The bride is Billie (Phoebe Whyte), a posh Notting Hill trustafarian about to marry one of her own. But with the help of her bridesmaids - Cordelia (Julia Sandiford) and Shiv (Suzie McGrath) - she recounts the period leading up to the wedding as a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style adventure with a man from the wrong side of the west London tracks. Paines Plough specialise exclusively in commissioning and developing contemporary playwrights and the production of their work on stage. nabokov is dedicated to commissioning, developing and producing backlash theatre - new work for the stage that offers an antagonistic response to contemporary agendas, trends and events.
The Operating Theatre Company, a network dedicated to the development of new writing for theatre, brings ‘I’m a Minger!’, to Latitude. Written and performed by Alex Jones, Jones plays his own 15-year old daughter, complete with pram-face and wig. ‘I’m a Minger!’ is a funny journey through the mind of a 15-year old girl – full of fizz, jokes and bittersweet rites-of-passage.
The Theatre Arena will host an enormous selection of stunning plays and shows from Royal Court Theatre, The Bush, Picks of the Pleasance plus so much more.