Latitude Festival
24 - 27 July 2025
Henham Park, Suffolk
In Latitude Loves…August we take a wistful look back at Latitude 2019 with our very own festival bookers, Lucy Wood and Ed Lilo.
Check out a selection of Lucy and Ed’s favourite performances by some of the artists at this year’s festival below. And, hit ‘play’ on their Latitude Loves…August Spotify Playlist to relive that magical weekend in Henham Park once more.
Why not do it all over again when Latitude Festival returns on 16th-19th July 2020. Get your tickets now at early bird prices!
Lucy: Their set was hit after hit. How do you just pick one? We could have picked their brief cover of ‘Whigfield’s Saturday Night’ (!), but finally agreed on the one that had the most people singing along. It only takes one band…. to turn an arena full of people into a huge chorus.
Ed: The song title says it perfectly – ‘Pretty Shining People’. That’s exactly what it was like in the Obelisk Arena when George Ezra headlined on the Friday night at Latitude 2019. Everywhere I looked people were beaming with undulated joy – myself included. And, I wasn’t alone as Latitude Festival founder, Melvin Benn, has since said it was “It was one of the most happy shows” he’d ever seen.
Lucy: Sigrid returned with storming form, with a trajectory taking her from packing out Sunrise Arena in 2017 (which she spoke of fondly onstage) to a huge crowd of joyful faces in the Obelisk Arena. There were so many standout moments, emotional ballads to upbeat bangers like ‘Strangers’. A true star.
Ed: Well after George Ezra had bid us farewell I walked to the Sunrise Arena deep in the Latitude woods to watch New York rapper and producer, Wiki. This track ‘Mayor’, taken from his last album ‘No Mountains In Manhattan’, is about Wiki aka Patrick Morales’ time as an up and coming rapper in New York. It’s so infused with the city’s idiosyncratic vibe you can literally feel the heat from the subway.
Lucy: This song is 30 years old and still so relevant, musically and socially and the video still looks pretty radical. Robert Del Naja co-wrote, hence the undertones of Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, but nobody could have written or performed the lyrics like Neneh, who can be credited with inspiring so many of the artists that have followed her. What an honour to present this total legend at Latitude, and to hear this song performed on the Obelisk Arena stage.
Lucy: Loyle Carner gets my vote for national hero. He writes excellent songs, he puts on a top show with his friend Rebel Clef, and he’s an amazingly kind-hearted human being, helping young people, and advocating for important causes (like CALM). Latitude rightly showed him love for his set on the Friday night. This track shows his verbal wit and dexterity and features the smooth vocals of another young talent and Carner collaborator, Jordan Rakai.
Ed: Melbourne trio Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever were one of my favourite bands at Latitude for two reasons. Firstly, no band exudes summer’s fading warmth quite like them. Secondly, they invited Julia Jacklin and Stella Donnelly on stage for their set. And, Latitude Loves regulars out there know it couldn’t be a Latitude Loves playlist without at least one mention of Julia Jacklin.
Lucy: Teleman are the musicians that musicians love, excellent players with seriously good songs, and their set turned the Sunrise Arena into an arcane disco for one magical hour. Their visuals were cut perfectly in time with the music – geometric shapes, blocky fonts and faded primary colours – vintage reference points but with a totally modern effect, just like their excellent music.
Ed: KOKOKO! didn’t just open the Obelisk Arena at Latitude 2019 they awakened it with the aid of a megaphone, DIY instruments and boilersuit worths of charisma. Here on ‘Tokoliana’ from their album ‘Fongola’ you’ll find Congolese collective much more stripped back but still rhymically hypnotic. It’s also the only song with the word ‘zumba’ in it that I’ll ever endorse.
Ed: ‘Baseball, basketball, weiner dog, short shorts’. Not many bands could get away with an opening line like this, but then Viagra Boys thankfully aren’t your average garage punk band. ‘Sports’ is as perfectly unhinged and rock n’ roll as the band’s packed show in The Alcove at Latitude 2019. If you haven’t done so already, and you really should, go check out the band’s debut album ‘Street Worms’.
Ed: Special guests Underworld’s set on the Saturday night after the Stereophonics was simply sublime as Karl and Rick turned the Obelisk Arena into a full blown rave. Although you can’t go back to that laser-filled night, you can listen to Underworld & Iggy Pop’s ‘Bells & Circles’ from their joint EP Teamtime Dub Encounters.
Lucy: One of the best songs of all time (it’s official, NME ranked it number 59 in their top 500!). An ace collage of samples from film and music, arranged perfectly in production by Andy Weatherall. Still goes down superbly live, and Bobby Gillespie should give lessons in stagecraft, he’s the ultimate front person.