Family affair: sisters report from Latitude Festival 2011

5 April 2012
Jane Scott

A small seaside town on the North Sea has had an irresistible pull for four generations of my family since 1928, when my grandparents first stayed in The Swan Hotel in Southwold. But while there is much here to entertain younger children, the resort has little to offer teenagers, unless the Christian summer camp happens to hit the spot.

Then came the Latitude Festival. From small beginnings in 2006, the 6th Festival this year attracted 35,000 visitors, selling out months ago. The programme, hefty to carry and a hefty £9 to buy, runs to 336 pages, offering hundreds of performances across dozens of stages, tents, sheds and arenas. On the menu are ballet, fashion, theatre, comedy, cabaret, fine art, poetry, disco, film, not to mention knitting, yoga, a beat box taster workshop and an aerial runway. As the organisers claim, it's 'more than just a music festival'; there's a vast range of music as well despite the lack, to my mind, of a killer headliner this year. You would spend far more than the £170 adult weekend ticket price and several weeks in London to put together an equivalent arts itinerary.

All ages are there, from tiny babies in arms to my aunt Beryl in her late 70s who hasn't missed a day since the first festival and, despite living within about 3 miles, camps from start to finish every time. Not that she is even the oldest to be seen dancing to K T Tunstall on a gorgeous hot Friday afternoon. Teenagers swarm to Suffolk in their thousands.

Although famously family-friendly, I find Latitude hard to negotiate as a family because, while there is something for everyone, not everyone likes everything - far from it. Alan Hollinghurst reading from his new novel, The Stranger's Child has a beautiful and mesmerising voice, but the spell keeps being interrupted by an 11-year old elbow in my ribs followed by a whispered 'when is this going to end?' There is no watershed here so, while I like the comedy tent in the afternoon, most of the acts were either unsuitable or, fingers crossed, incomprehensible for the younger children in the party.

My strategy was to dip in and out of the festival, spending the wettest hours based in my parents' cottage in Southwold and the nights in a warm and dry bed lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves. This cop-out was scoffed at by my 17 year-old son who, shunning sleep almost completely, was going all-out for the 'full festival experience', camping with 20 mates with tents in a circle formation. Apparently, as I was forbidden access at any time. I agreed with a friend I chanced across that the most satisfactory way of experiencing Latitude is to strike out on your own and do exactly what you want, meeting up with the family by texting them to offer food and drink at regular intervals.

Friday: so hot that heatstroke seemed a distinct possibility. Highlights: The Duke and the King, Shappy Khorsandi, K T Tunstall, Paloma Faith and The National, who closed a glorious day under a bright red sky, Bush Theatre's, The Flooded Grave, after midnight in a hidden location deep in the woods.

Saturday: one of the most miserable wet days of the year so far, but the mood remained mellow and spirits were high as long as you had the right waterproof gear. Highlights: Never Mind the Buzzcocks live recording, Omid Djalili, Alan Hollinghurst, Seasick Steve and Foals.

Sunday: it rained for only some of the day. Highlights: Marcus Brigstocke & Andre Vincent's Early Edition, OMD, Eels, Hurts and The Waterboys, coinciding with Dylan Moran, who ranted about the racket from his fellow countrymen from the adjacent arena and poked fun at the middle-classness of us all (as did every comedian I saw) and at Michael McIntyre, who only that morning was telling Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs how hurtful the comedy community can be.

Mary Scott

New this year at Latitude and a great place to entertain children aged 12+, was the Inbetweeners Area. The children disappeared into the tree canopies on the Monkey-Do aerial runway, which consisted of nets hanging from the trees. Another success was the MC & Music Production workshop organised by Culture Works East, a free media workshop, where groups were taught how to use the garage band programme to create a music track presented to them at the end of the session.

It was impossible to try everything out - the Bushcraft skills organised by Greenpeace looked good fun and included fire-lighting and shelter building; we hope it's there next year.

Featuring for the second year running were the graduate shows from Chelsea College of Art and Design, the London College of Fashion and Oxfam.

The models appeared from tents on the other bank of the lake, then appeared to glide across the water on a catwalk that led to the Waterfront Stage. Highlights were the stunning dresses and separates using digital and traditional silk-screen printing by Claire Miller; the quirky swimsuit crocheted in cream cotton with colourful sculptured shapes by Chelsea College's Rachel Louise Penn; and the diaphanous, delicately patterned dresses of Georgia Xanthe Dorey from Chelsea.

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