When: 24th – 27th July 2024
Where: Henham Park, Suffolk, England
If ever a festival matches its audience, it’s Latitude. It’s been said before, and was said again by many of the comedians gracing the stage this year, it’s a festival of white middle-class people watching music by predominantly white middle-class people, with a dash of comedy, podcasting, theatre, and random chit-chats thrown in. That’s not to belittle the festival, it’s exactly that duplication of feel, line-up, and variety of entertainment that keep people coming back year after year.
Having said that, for a festival that used to pride itself on not repeating headliners, having Snow Patrol back for the third time in four years is a bit much. Add Fatboy Slim and Sting to that mix and you’re missing the youth-focused headliners that in recent years has seen the likes of Wolf Alice and London Grammar top the bill. It used to be the festival you could see headliners before they were headliners.
No diss to Sting though. For a man in his early 70s he possessed the striding stage presence of a stallion wielding his bass like a pugel stick. And his set is a hit-laden joy that brings some of the weekend’s biggest sing-alongs on the Obelisk Arena. The former Police man has the type of back catalogue that when you’re an hour or so in you’re thinking there aren’t any hits left and then he whips out ‘So Lonely’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’. His 3.0 setup with just bass, drums and guitar brings a muscularity to the songs and the man himself looks like he’s having heaps of fun.
Also heating up Friday were Basement Jaxx, who returned to the live arena after a decade away. Another band where you know more songs than you think, their stage show was full of dancers, weird costumes, and more variety than you could possibly have imagined. They won the battle of the dance over the more prosaic and club-like Saturday set from Fatboy Slim. Over on the still sponsor-less Second Stage, Feeder and a mix of songs from their 30ish years, to a surprisingly large audience, and Sigrid closed the night to a screaming audience that showed the power of counter-programming against Sting.
Saturday brought rain, and quite a bit of it. It also brought laughter with Marcus Brigstocke and Alana Jackson, less so from Harriet Kemsley. Jade Bird‘s folky-Americana beat the rain before a terrific evening run of Kaiser Chiefs – yes, playing all you’d expect and with Ricky Wilson’s energy outstripping any other performer over the weekend – mashing into the sublime Public Service Broadcasting, before the smooth Texan soul sounds of Leon Bridges – resplendent in a white shirt and chinos – closed the evening. And we can’t forget about Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown, a riotous, ridiculousness of an hour with Amy Gledhill and Harriet Kemsley adding to the chaos.
As with all festivals Sunday has a more chillable vibe, the morning and early afternoon spent visiting the onsite bookshop, grabbing a coffee or two, shuffling next door to The Listening Post to hear John Pienaar, Nick Robinson and Jim Pickard talk politics (Trump and Starmer) and news (public spending), then hanging with the Comedy Store gang at the Comedy Stage laughing to Kiri Pritchard-McLean, the deadpan Jin Hao Li, and BGT alumni Markus Birdman.
Camping out at the Second Stage was the order of the day after that relaxing start, The War and Treaty went down a treat with their country-adjacent soul, Lapsley brought the UK pop, while Pale Waves grunged their way through the late afternoon. You could take in the ’80 behemoth that is Alison Moyet – really very good – or everymen Elbow, but hidden away in The Alcove were Imogen and the Knife, the Geordie-based band all synth-pop and atmosphere, followed by the country guitar of Cat Clyde and her crack band, two very different but wildly accomplished new acts.
So overall Latitude, what did we think? Well, it was what you’d expect from the festival in its 19th year, but it played it a bit too safe. When you look at acts like Wet Leg, Nothing But Thieves, Self Esteem and The Last Dinner Party headlining or subbing, and Wolf Alice with a new album in a month, you feel there are more exciting acts to give opportunities to. The status quo is OK for so long, but if you’re not taking risks or bringing anything new, you end up with Snow Patrol headlining every year.
2026 is the festival’s 20th anniversary, and Glastonbury is in a fallow year, so it seems ripe to bring back some of the unexpected and to grow their next generation of high-billing acts and paying customers.
