Review: Latitude 2024 – in Words & Pictures
The great things about Latitude Festival remained the same as ever this year, with a beautiful setting in Henham Park, Suffolk and a lovely family friendly atmosphere. Only a minor noticeable change being the lack of a headline sponsor on banners and signage, after Irish artist CMAT and others pulled out of the festival back in May prompting the festival to sever ties with Barclays due to their arms industry investments and their involvement in the Gaza war.
Arriving on site on a very hot and sunny Friday morning, the walk to the main arena takes you through woods adorned with bunting, lights and artwork, then over the lake past the long queue of swimmers heading for a morning dip. Reminding you that not many festivals do it this way.
Throughout the weekend you had plenty of opportunities to grab great food, with a huge selection of vendors across the site, serving just about anything you can stick in a small compostable tray. With prices that didn’t seem that bad for festivals with mains hovering around the £12-16 mark.
Comedy
Taking shelter from the sun in the comedy tent (as we would each morning) meant being treated to a mix of well known names and up and coming comics. Highlights including the Chortle Student Award Finalists, Latitude veteran compere David Morgan (who also dashed to the listening post to be interviewed whilst acts were on stage). Sara Pascoe got her deferred spot after being unwell for last year, with a cracking theory about ADHD being a pyramid scheme.
Sadly Jo Brand might need to take a leaf out of Pascoe’s book and hopefully comeback next year as she had to pull out. However there were plenty of laughs to be had, such as veteran comic Stewart Lee on Sunday, with a perfect routine Closer that he wrote in 1989. Or a great mix of comedians presented by Comedy Store.
Friday Music
On the Obelisk Stage the festival would get really moving with Frank Turner shifting gears with this appearance into his punk roots, rather than his more folk side. Getting the crowd up and moving and singing along with him, before surfing across the crowd towards the end of his set.
Fat Dog in the Sunrise Arena packed the tent out on a Friday afternoon akin to The Last Dinner Party last year, but with a very different energy of synth tinged deep rock. Complete with crab dancing in the crowd.
The Vaccines would take to the Obelisk stage, returning to the festival and moving up a stage from 2021 mentioning that “[was] when the world was a different place and you [the crowd] brought tears to our eyes”. They would play with their confident swagger, with songs off their latest LP along with hits like If You Wanna, Wetsuit and Teenage Icon.
Their swagger would be out done by Serge from Kasabian however, as he took the stage in bright yellow trainers and a blue tracksuit, storming across the vast stage singing Club Foot from their 2004 debut. They would continue through their dance influenced rock hits, with some tracks using intros from some of those dance idols like Deee-Lite and Fatboy Slim.
Saturday Music
Seasick Steve was back in Suffolk once again fro his fifth visit, along with his drummer Crazy Dan, they reminded the crowd why they keep being asked back, with great straightforward superb tunes and a dry wit in-between songs.
Over on the Sunrise Arena Chicago’s young trio Lifeguard, shredded out their math garage rock, tunes with hints of a slightly toned down Mars Volta to them.
The afternoon would bring CMAT’s uncontainable energy to the stage in a dress with a Palestine flag drawn on it. She wowed the crowd with her great pop country songs as much as her head banging and high kicks, maybe reminding everyone that music should be celebrated and enjoyed with zero cares for what others think of you.
Towards the end of CMAT’s set you could see the older festival goers slowly taking up positions in the crowd ahead of Rick Astley. Who serenaded the crowd with some old hits along with new tunes, telling the crowd “if I pick up a guitar it’s likely to be a new song”. And a few covers including Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under.
With Hopes and Fears now 20 years old Keane were reminding the crowd how that albums success changed all their lives and how lucky they feel to be playing a festival size gig. Speaking of visiting Beccles just down the road and enjoying being in Suffolk. Played Somewhere Only We Know with the crowd singing the chorus strong, finishing with Bed Shaped as the sun set over the festival site.
After the sun went down crowds were given a choice of Orbital on the Second Stage or London Grammar on the Obelisk, both starting at 9.30pm.
Sunday Music
Early on it was clear a lot of people were here just for tonight’s headliners, with more Sunday wristbands, empty nesters, and of course Duran Duran merch being worn proudly. However before they would take the stage, people would need to loan out their front row spots to a few other fans.
With Suffolk’s biggest musical export (Sorry Ed, but Justin’s on stage energy might outweigh the gold records) The Darkness would make their debut, finally! With plenty of talk of being home, including asking the crowd if they thought Friday Night might be written about them, before spotting a school friend in the crowd that it could have been. They smashed through hits Get Your Hands Off My Woman, I Believe in a Thing Called Love and even a fantastic cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.
Rag’n’Bone Man would soothe the crowd with his amazing voice after, with a few swear words which he said was fine as Hawkins’ had just told him it was allowed. Nile Rodgers & Chic would then remind you of how many hit songs Rodgers has written over the years, warming up the crowd ready for the festival closer.
Finally it was time, with an arena packed to the stands, perfect time to get a drink or food as all the queues were gone. The big lights shone and an intro video seeing Duran Duran’s members flying through a sci-fi scene before landing on stage and walking from the bright lights at the back of the stage. They would plough straight into Wild Boys quickly followed by Hungry Like The Wolf and on through their back catalogue of hits to a great response from the audience. Ordinary World was dedicated to the people of Ukraine, Gaza and Israel, although personally I still link that song with a brutal scene in the film Layer Cake.
If you were possibly dragged to Latitude by parent not wanting to see Duran Duran, then a great counter point was Talk Show over on the Sunrise Arena, bringing high energy punk sounds, equal parts aggressive and theatrical, that was reflected in their energetic crowd. They gave everything which was commendable considering they admitted they would be back at work the next morning.
Proving that Latitude still has something for everyone, when’s the line up for 2025 announced?
Review and pictures, Stephen Keable, for Ipswich24 Magazine, with additional support from Katie O’Hara.
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FRIDAY
