UK Festival 2017’s Winner of Best Major Festival, Latitude Festival returns to Henham Park, Suffolk on Thursday 12th – Sunday 15th July 2018 for the biggest offering of music, theatre, dance, film, comedy, literature and spoken word.
The already burgeoning bill is amazingly still growing and today Latitude Festival is pleased to announce a diverse range of new names added to the line up across the arts stages, joining headliners QI, Harry Hill, and Bridget Christie, as well as music headliners The Killers, Alt-J, and Solange. Tickets are available here.
The Music and Film Arena welcomes back legendary filmmaker Asif Kapadia, who won an Oscar for Amy and a BAFTA for Senna, plus globally renowned for his visually striking documentaries, Kapadia is currently working on a series about another troubled genius Diego Maradona, and returns to Latitude in conversation with the UK’s leading film critic Mark Kermode. Mark Kermode will also bring a live version of his radio show CELLUOID JUKEBOX, about movie music and the interplay between the sound and vision. And over in The Cabaret Theatre, Jack Rooke gives a comedy-storytelling of Love Letters, a show about shagging blokes whose ages span four different decades, all set to a live-harp accompaniment from acclaimed harpist Alexander Thomas.
Over at the SpeakEasy, Latitude attendees can immerse themselves in lively debate and discussion from the brightest voices. TV presenter Reggie Yates will discuss his life as a documentary filmmaker – and a pretty fearless one at that – where he has truly been making his mark, investigating everything from gun crime in Chicago, to life as a refugee in IraqAward-winning comedian Adam Kay joins the line up to read from his book This Is Going To Hurt, the hilarious yet horrifying, and occasionally heartbreaking diaries of his former life as junior doctor and why he decided to hang up his stethoscope. Sky At Night’s Chris Lintott, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, gives Latitude attendees A Tour Of The Universe and stargazing experience with the audience, the project that has involved more than a million people in exploring the Universe. Mixing comedy with science Latitude stalwart Robin Ince is trying to understand physics again while his friend Brian Cox is on a “pointing at the mountaintops” retreat, while Sabrina Mahfouz reads her insightful poetry.
Comedian Russell Kane brings his twisted BBC podcast Evil Genius to the festival, which sees the stand-up comedian joined by a panel of Latitude friends to delve into the darker, lesser-known sides of some of the world’s cultural icons. BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, featuring the best poetry, new writing, performance, and hosted by Ian McMillan makes a welcome return, and as previously announced, Jessie Ware’s chart-topping podcast Table Manners comes live at Latitude with Jessie and her mum Lennie swapping the kitchen table for the SpeakEasy, and they will be joined by Adam Buxton. The follow-up to the number one Sunday Times bestseller Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig comes to the SpeakEasy for a very special reading of Notes On A Nervous Planet, and comedian and activist Jack Rooke has been added to chair the Modern Love debate with the previously announced Joel Dommett, Dolly Alderton and Justin Myers (The GuyLiner).
Women’s Prize for Fiction will be returning to Latitude for a third year to and present Who owns the New Feminism with an exceptional panel of inspiring women including prize co-founder and bestselling novelist Kate Mosse, award-winning author, activist and “Queen of Teen” Juno Dawson, writer, broadcaster, reviewer and classicist Natalie Haynes, Sunday Times best-selling author and co-presenter of The High Low Podcast Dolly Alderton, and award-winning author and broadcaster June Sarpong MBE.
Renowned for its diverse and awe-inspiring dance programme, Latitude welcomes some phenomenal new additions to the stunning Waterfront including Atomos, a work by cutting-edge contemporary choreographer Wayne McGregor where ten incredible dancers will perform McGregor’s sculptural, rigorous, jarring and hauntingly beautiful style, and a glorious duet from their new show Autobiography. Energetic, creative and full of individuality, Old Kent Road’s infectious tapdancing make their Latitude debut, and will transport you back to the 1930s when dancers would improvise, jam, and battle on street corners. The Kings of Bhangra – 4×4 Dancers also perform with their must-see colourful high octane, world-renowned acrobatic dance show with live drumming and vocals.
Following a complete sellout and critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, Simon Evans brings his latest live show Genius to Latitude. What is Genius? Beethoven? Einstein? The ability to carry a third pint-glass without spilling it? Few of these questions will be adequately answered but all will at the least be squinted at, quizzically, in his show. Joining Evans is U.S. comic Sean Patton, who expertly blends rapid-fire comedy and compelling storytelling; an undeniably excellent comic force on stage and on screen. The Edinburgh Best Newcomer nominee and English Comedian of the Year, and dubbed the “teenage Alan Bennett”, Manchester comic Brennan Reece also brings his acclaimed, five-star show to Suffolk.
Bristling with creativity and flair, Latitude’s theatre programme adds Boys, presented by The PappyShow. It’s a wonderful and joyful exploration of manhood by a cast of eight men of colour whose families span the world. Also added is Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, where a bunch of improvisers who have learned how to make up a fully-realised musical on the spot based on audience suggestions. It includes incredible, moving story-lines, amazing songs, full group harmonies, and dance numbers.