A Glimpse Inside Latitude Festival With Betty Magazine

Step inside the UK’s Latitude festival, through the eyes of our friends at Betty Magazine!

Set on a magical plot next to a lake in Suffolk, Latitude festival has long been a firm favourite at Betty Magazine. In its 9th year, it’s a relatively small affair (40,000 attendees), but despite growing in size each year it still manages to maintain an intimate and relaxing vibe. We pitched up camp in our 1973 VW Campervan, also called Betty, and set to work on planning or itinerary for the next three days. The diverse range of things to see makes it hard to cram it all in. The headline acts sit amongst emerging new musical talent, cabaret, comedy, poetry, film and literary readings – the to do list really is endless.

One of the things that strikes you at Latiude is attention to detail. Even the cups are re-usable eco-cups, the festival places a strong emphasis on being green to reduce the environmental impact of an event this size. Encouraging everyone to recycle, using 100% vegetable oil biodiesel generators and peal powered phone charging – this festival gets a gold star before it has even begun!

Highlights of the weekend include the Sadler’s Wells waterfront stage – floating on the riverside, this captivating stage played host to the English National Ballet and the National Youth Dance Company. We then wandered on through the enchanted woods where we stumbled across neon signs, oversized flower sculptures and the dreamy Josephine Foster who was playing her folk inspired psychedelic rock with her Nashville backing group. A new firm Betty favourite.

Saturday brought in an epic storm which lit up the night sky and framed the main stage whilst headliner Damon Albarn brought on fellow Blur member Graham Coxon to play ‘Tender’ whilst we danced along in the summer rain. Other musical highlights included headliners the Black Keys, super cool Haim, Chrissie Hynde (who showed everyone how it is still done), The War on Drugs, Bombay Bicycle Club, George Ezra, Valerie June, and Swedish siblings First Aid Kit.

If you’re looking for a festival that feeds the soul with diverse culture then Latitude really is the festival for you…we can’t wait to don our kimonos and while away the time by the riverside next year.