Whilst remaining coy about the music line-up, Latitude Festival looks to be verging on another promising season as one of the best emerging festivals. Sigur Rós, Franz Ferdinand and Interpol are headlining this years Latitude, the third year of the festival, following in the footsteps of the likes of Arcade Fire, Snow Patrol and Damien Rice in previous years. As Melvin Benn and the festival’s organisers have been so keen on telling us since 2006, this is ‘more than a just a music festival’ with names such as Bill Bailey and Phill Jupitus returning for a second year along with their ‘Buzzcocks’ resident Simon Amstell, Ross Noble, Rich Hall and Omid Djalili and many more on the comedy stage. It does not stop there, with stages such as the Literary Arena showcasing Dave Gorman, Stuart Marconi and Simon Armitage among many others; poetry comes most notably in the form of Carol Ann Duffy and with a total of twelve stages, it is clear that the festival is continuing to grow.
The festival started in impressive fashion, tempting Snow Patrol to headline the inaugural year, the year that they made the leap across the pond to America with great success, some would even say it was the year of Snow Patrol. Alongside them were Mercury Prize-winning Anthony and the Johnsons and Mogwai, The Zutons also appeared but not as headliners, which itself surely shows the strength of the line-up. This exciting line-up sparked interest from many different avenues, especially the nomination for best new festival at the 2006 festival awards. So on to 2007 where the names kept on coming, Damien Rice, The Good The Bad and the Queen and The Arcade Fire all headlined with the likes of Britpop’s very own Jarvis Cocker, Cold War Kids and The Magic Numbers on the main stage bill. The main music stage, The Obelisk, underwent a forced makeover when the tent that covered the arena “blew away” creating an open-air main stage, a blessing in disguise in many people’s eyes. The award nominations continued with the second festival reaping three nominations, the Best Medium Sized Festival, Best Line-up and the Fan Friendly award in which they finished first in the voting.
This year looks like it could be another step in the right direction. The massive, atmospheric sound of Sigur Rós should suit the signature laid back, relaxed feel of Latitude to perfection. Franz Ferdinand will add that touch of jerky pop with their anthems of ‘Take me out’ and ‘Do you want to’ alongside Interpol’s dark American indie. The line-up so far surely has enough depth to draw in the 20,000 capacity with Manchester elder statesmen Elbow and the Nick Cave project The Grinderman also announced. The Go! Team will offer some must-see hip-hop fused dance whose live performances truly are unrivalled along with American indie-emo-pop cult heroes Death Cab For Cutie and prog-rockers The Mars Volta.
Melvin Benn, managing director of organisers Festival Republic (formerly MeanFiddler) and festival extraordinaire is clearly looking forward to this year’s event saying, “I cannot wait. It has so much in store that July 17th cannot come quickly enough for me.” The success of Latitude has not come as a surprise to Benn and says that festivals should, and would continue in Latitude’s vein, “Latitude has, as I had hoped, re written the rulebook of what a festival might be and can be and of course therefore, immediately influenced other existing festivals and spurned copycats. I am hardly surprised except that it has happened so quickly. It is a great compliment but it is only that.”
Latitude is clearly a good stepping-stone for new bands, and new bands are certainly the focus. The rumour that Paul Weller would be appearing in 2007 was quickly quashed due to this apparent focus on promoting new music from the organisers, despite Jarvis Cocker appearing. Scott Mathews, the Ivor Novello prizewinning singer-songwriter, appeared at the first latitude in the Sunrise Arena, the smallest stage and returned last year in the Uncut Arena, the second biggest stage. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly also appeared at the debut year on Huw Stephens’ introducing stage and also made an impromptu appearance in 2007.
The festival has not been without it’s teething problems. Security issues marred 2006 and 2007’s festivals with some people’s tents being knifed open and looted and even some physical assaults although the organisers claimed that the second year was an improvement security wise on the first year. Many also felt that the organisers did not take into account the increase in numbers as they maintained a similar layout with few changes and tents remained the same size, with the obvious exception to the Obelisk. This meant that to see, the comedy tent especially, the more famous, well-known acts you needed to be there often many hours before the main event. This also meant you would miss many other acts for the sake of just one act. This year’s layout has been released with it seeming the same, with no details about tent sizing. These so called problems aren’t only Latitude’s. The fact that it’s advertised as the ‘festival for all ages’ could well account for these inconveniences, not typical festival goers will have different expectations than the seasoned professionals. So maybe these should be taken with a pinch of salt or two.
Latitude may not be the ‘coolest’ festival of the year; it is certainly one of the most innovative and intelligent. An already impressive line-up of music, literature, poetry, theatre and cabaret that will only be improved upon all in a beautiful setting with greenery, a lake, forest and even dyed sheep make for a festival that should be in the minds of most music fans. And literary fans. And poetry fans. And Theatre fans. And cabaret fans. And…. well I’m sure you get the point.
Certainly, Latitude is one of the most intelligent festivals this country has seen for a long while, however it is steadily becoming more and more commercial. What happened to their Folk style roots? Sure, it’s more than just a music festival, but do they think that by cramming the poetry, literary and comedy arenas with well known names they can begin to slack at their choice of music stage performers? Sure, Sigur Rós will go down a treat at Latitude this year but Franz Ferdinand? Really? I’m beginning to think that Mean Fiddler are now just seeing Latitude as a cash cow and that never makes for a happy ending. Before long it will get as overcrowded as Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury and this is a real shame as it had so much potential in 2006.