Latitude Festival review: rising stars and seasoned legends unite

For thousands of British families who haven’t already left the country for a summer holiday, spending a weekend at Latitude Festival in Suffolk – alongside their iconic pink sheep – has long been a home-from-home half-term alternative for the middle class. While there’s plenty to entertain all ages – from fairground rides, gondola boat trips, shipbuilding and puppetry to a children’s Waterstones bookshop, thought-provoking theatre performances on the water and top-tier comedians – the genre-spanning music programme really stands out for its balance between huge names and rising stars.

Things get off to a lively start at the Sunrise Arena on Friday as Fat Dog’s blistering Western-punk-electro barrage shakes the cobwebs off those who have just arrived from work. Despite playing to a far more intimate crowd, Crewe emo rockers UNIVERSITY really give it everything: their sonically-challenging DIY fusion – shouted sentences, snarling guitar riffs, pounding drums and even a balaclava-covered man who plays video games – proves equally perplexing and thrilling. Taking a more interactive approach, Willie J Healey brings cowboy hats, boot-stomping riffs (‘The Apple’), funky basslines (‘Thank You’) and good vibes to the same space; in a lovely moment, he runs through the crowd to hug as many people as possible. 

After Texan trio Khruangbin’s hazy psych instrumentals, which impressively fill the main stage despite their languid nature, it’s time for the weekend’s first headliners, Kasabian. The Leicester band’s distortion-heavy Friday night rock-rave – which intersperses classics by Faithless, Beastie Boys, Deelite and Fatboy Slim – gets the field (including hundreds of youngsters on their parents’ shoulders) bouncing together. “It’s a vibe this festival, innit?” he says before waving his laser gloves ahead of an incendiary ‘Vlad The Impaler’ and climbing into the crowd during ‘L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)’. Owing to a timing clash, Future Islands draw a smaller-than-usual audience of diehard fans to the second stage. Exuberant frontman Samuel T. Herring isn’t phased, however, gleefully grunting, high-kicking and chest-hitting his way through ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’. 

Saturday starts off softer and on a singer-songwriter tip. Alessi Rose’s confessional punky pop paints her out as Derby’s answer to Olivia Rodrigo; the way she effortlessly commands the stage with relatable stories and powerful vocals (particularly during the stripped-back ‘Lucy’ and a brilliant cover of Chappel Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’), you’d never know this is her first ever festival. Lexie Carroll, who fondly recalls coming to Latitude aged 11, is vocally softer (think Holly Humberstone) but equally impressive thanks to the crashing drums and rumbling riffs (‘We Never Made It To Glasgow’) that add weight to her melancholic songwriting (‘Laundry Detergent’). 

After Rick Astley draws one of the weekend’s biggest audiences for an hour of nostalgic singalongs, things take a ravier turn elsewhere. The Itch’s infectious new wave is impossible not to dance to, as is Jockstrap’s electronic experimentalism, but it’s innovators Orbital who – alongside the strobe-heavy keytar-bolstered synth-pop of Alison Goldfrapp – prove the weekend’s biggest highlight. Dishing out laser-precisioned mash-ups of their own classic rave tracks and iconic pop hits by Belinda Carlisle and Spice Girls (interspersing them with rolling breakbeats, of course), ‘Chime’ has all the parents and their kids lost in the moment together – a great sight. 

Though their sound is comparatively cinematic, London Grammar’s headline show on Saturday is full of pulsing electronic flourishes. Bringing the huge main stage crowd to a pin-drop silence, fan favourites and tracks from their upcoming third album ‘The Greatest Love’ are paired with mosaic backing visuals and clever drone videography. Drummer and producer Dot Major dedicates ‘House’ to all the kids staying up late; its rumbling drum’n’bass breakbeats and neon green strobes will certainly keep them awake (much like the synth-rave outro of ‘Into Gold’). ‘Baby It’s You’, meanwhile, creates a utopian feeling of togetherness – an atmosphere that rings true throughout the entire weekend’s festivities.

Bringing the fun of an extremely sunny Latitude 2024 to a close, Chic and Duran Duran delight with career-spanning performances, once again proving the festival team‘s curative ethos of celebrating icons while championing the future.