LATITUDE AT 20
I wanted to flip that on its head so that the first thing you saw at Latitude would be the Waterfront Stage, the literature tent, or the poetry tent. So that your visual and cultural arrival into Latitude wasn ' t the music.
“ The music headliners were the most important aspect, of course, in terms of drawing people to the event, but your cultural arrival into this festival was literature, poetry and modern dance, and that sets the tone. The place that you have to walk furthest to is the main music stage, the Obelisk Arena. There has never been a festival like Latitude that really put arts and culture at the heart of it or has combined it with live music in the same way.”
The art of launching Latitude
“ Latitude was the first new festival I launched after becoming part of Live Nation. It was a strong step for Live Nation to take because it was a really different setup to a regular music festival, but Dennis Desmond [ UK & Ireland chairman ] and Paul Latham [ former international COO ] were very supportive.”
While you will find poetry at The Listening Post, literary luminaries at The Bookshop and science explored in The Cosmic Shambles area, one of the biggest non-music stages at Latitude is the Comedy Arena; which this year has a huge bill led by no less than six headliners; Jack Dee, Jen Brister, Ross Noble, Sue Perkins, Sara Pascoe and a UK festival exclusive from Sir Lenny Henry— his first return to stand-up in 17 years. Among the regulars will be Marcus Brigstocke, who has performed at every Latitude Festival since 2006.
Key to the inclusion of comedy at Latitude from the outset was the event’ s former creative director Tania Harrison.“ She came over to Live Nation with me, as part of Mean Fiddler,” says Benn.“ She was the one that really cracked the beginning of the comedy stage, which is now the biggest outdoor comedy stage in Britain. Outside of the Edinburgh Festival I think Latitude is the most important comedy stage that there is.”
While the numerous art forms are key ingredients in Latitude’ s success, contemporary music remains the biggest ticket-selling driver. This year will see David Byrne play a UK festival exclusive headline slot, he is to be joined by Lewis Capaldi and Teddy Swims, with Everything Everything opening the coveted Sunday slot on the Obelisk Arena. It will be a full-circle moment for the Manchester-based band, with them having first played the festival in 2011 as a rising act way down the bill.
Waxing lyrical
At the outset, Latitude’ s music offering was curated by promoter Jon Dunn, who Benn has the utmost respect for.“ Jon finds more new bands than anybody else in this country, he is extraordinary,” says the longstanding Festival Republic boss.“ Jon got my vision for what Latitude should be from a musical point of view. I wanted it to reflect the quality of Nick Drake, for it to be about songwriters. We ' ve been true to that tradition ever since.”
Benn says that while there have been countless music highlights over the past two decades in Henham Park, the band that deserves the most credit is Snow Patrol.
“ Snow Patrol is the single most important act to Latitude because they were the first music headliner to confirm,” he says.“ Until you have your first confirmation, you haven ' t got a festival. They ' re a big band but they took a chance on me. I had explained the concept to their agent Steve Strange, who trusted me, and he persuaded the band to do it.”
The inaugural Latitude also featured headliners Mogwai and Antony and the Johnsons at the Obelisk Arena, while others to perform included The Zutons, The Lemonheads, Patti Smith and Paolo Nutini.
Over the years since, there have been no shortage of standout musical moments at the 45,000-capacity event, and among the first to spring to mind for Benn are performances by the Damon Albarn-led supergroup Good The Bad & The Queen, Bon Iver and Ed Sheeran.
“ Ed had played multiple nights at Wembley Stadium and the following week he came and played the Sunrise Stage at Latitude, because that ' s what he dreamt about playing when he was a kid,” says Benn.
On that same stage that year, Thom York played a Sunday lunchtime slot with a solo performance on
accessaa. co. uk 19