Latitude Festival, Suffolk
24th-27th July 2026
Photography by Latitude Festival.
Toby Furlong
I’m a writer hailing from the distant land of Norfolk. With a deep love for vinyl, currently standing at over 100 in my collection. When it comes to picking a favourite artist, it will always be the sounds of Trish Keenan and Broadcast.
Latitude is celebrating a very special occasion: 20 years of commitment to spotlighting the very best of tomorrow’s stars.
Trace your mind back to your last year and you may remember over here at CLUNK we had the pleasure of carting down to Latitude for it’s 19th occasion, and we gave the festival heaps of praise for placing some of our favourite up and coming stars on stages across the weekend, spanning from the Sunrise, Alcove and The Second Stage areas.
This time round, the focus was on familiar faces playing to audience’s double the size of last year, discovering new favourites and, most importantly, getting stuck into a right old knees up, (make that a dusty one!) as Latitude obtained unlimited points for a cracking weekend… however much my respiratory system might disagree. Let’s get stuck into a weekend that included special sets from Westside Cowboy, Getdown Services, Mama Oh No and Natalie Wildgoose, from an arid festival site they might well be using for the next film in the current Mad Max trilogy.
FRIDAY
Starting our journey in tender fashion was Natalie Wildgoose on the Alcove stage. Surrounded by trees, rivers and nature it was almost as if Wildgoose‘s music had found its spiritual home; wispy and comforting folk music that found itself perfectly bonded with our rural surroundings. Listen to Wildgoose perform ‘Sybil‘ live and you’ll feel yourself transported to a mystical environment as she sings sweetly accompanied by softly strummed guitar.
Moving forward with steam, the next slice of entertainment was courtesy of our favourite impenetrable, cryptic, surreal performers Dry Cleaning. The South Londoner’s can be a tricky group to place, listen to them on record or within the confines of a tightly packed arena and none of the mystery dares to leave the room, Florence Shaw’s often baffling and surreally entertaining lyricism goes down like a riot, but by putting the group in a festival environment, on the biggest stage and some of that magic fails to stay contained, often flying over the head of the audience and into the Suffolk skies. The enjoyment from tracks such as ‘Scratchcard Lanyard‘ and ‘Gary Ashby‘ will always be persistent, but stick the band on the Sunrise arena instead next year and you’ll have a weekend highlight wrapped up.
This weekend’s first trip to the renowned Second Stage and it was a supreme set from a group daring to aim for the biggest stages, it could only be Lime Garden. Returning to Henham Park, the group found themselves returning to the site of the first festival they had ever played, which may explain why Chloe Howard introduced ‘Love Song‘ by saying; “Thank you for believing in us when we were shit.” Two albums later, playing a whirlwind set under a tent packed to the absolute rafters, this is some retribution, one may even say a victory lap. It’s impossible to describe the occasion without mentioning how much it appeared like the group were simply enjoying it, playing with dynamite confidence and playing tracks such as ‘Pop Star‘, ‘Maybe Not Tonight‘ and ‘Bitter‘, addictive songs that have cemented themselves into the heart of the Latitude audience as every lyric is shouted back at the performing group.
Friday evening entertainment pushed us into glitter ball territory starting with the theatrical Last Dinner Party and concluding with the legendary David Byrne. “We first played Latitude three years ago at the Sunrise Stage, and we only had one song out,” says Abigail Morris of the Last Dinner Party with a beaming smile. It’s been some rise for the indie starlets, the journey hasn’t always been smooth, but a trend you’ll notice with Latitude is the amount of groups that eagerly return after a few years of determined grafting, getting an album or two under their belts before returning to the stage with courage, authenticity and a feeling that every time they return the occasion will grow bigger and bigger, The Last Dinner Party are one of these groups and expect to see them come around next time headlining the biggest occasion.
Before we talk about the all important music aspect, Byrne demonstrated an urgency and an immediacy to his worldview as background visuals shone a spotlight on climate issues and police brutality in America, and the importance of community in times of strife, not too dissimilar to the approach that Massive Attack exhibited at 2025’s LIDO festival. The songs themselves were delivered with absolute heartfelt passion, in a set that walked the line between a hit parade, as he stormed through Talking Heads‘ classics such as ‘Psycho Killer‘, ‘Life During Wartime‘ and ‘Once In A Lifetime‘, but it was the lesser known inclusions, such as the Eno collaboration ‘Strange Overtones‘ and recent work such as ‘Everybody Laughs‘ that gives the impression Byrne has found the ultimate balance between rolling out his glittering catalogue and finding his own enjoyment in the spectacle. Byrne has a relentlessly positive stage presence, rejecting any ‘get on with it and get it over’ approach also solidified by some background images of curious things he found exploring Norfolk (the Suffolk locals were livid). It was endless fun and if I could transport myself back there I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
SATURDAY
Anybody who’s been reading CLUNK over the last few years will know our total infatuation with Manchester’s very finest Westside Cowboy, this is a group we have believed in from the very start and to see their meteoric rise across the UK and beyond and within the confines of Latitude as they swap last year’s Sunrise arena and it’s crowd of a few hundred spectators who may have been getting a first time look at a buzzy and enthusiastic group, for the grander Second Stage, playing their absolute hearts out in front of thousands of fans who have initiated themselves to the raw talent on display. Whereas certain groups would quite rightly see the step up as a victory lap and who could blame them, this group still perform every song like the opportunity is make or break, Paddy Murphy still screams “WESTSIDEEEE COWBOY” on the opening track I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You) with every ounce of drive, ambition and belief that this band are destined for the very top. There can be no confusion, when the group blow the crowd away with Kick Stones (The Boys), Drunk Surfer and In The Morning they have everybody on board, hanging onto every single word.
A rendezvous to the BBC Introducing Stage now and we were treated to a double helping of local talent from Norfolk’s finest PleasureInc and Mama Oh No. PleasureInc served up a bombastic, confident display of genre-bending goodness, very rarely do you see a group so perfectly pulling in the same direction and it’s clear as day to see their set at Henham Park as another tangible example of the energy they have been bringing across UK and Europe, for some inspired listening of something you won’t be able to place to one genre, check out ‘Lies’ which released in April.
From one local to another now, Mama Oh No served up a barnstorming, surf-guitar infused concoction given a twinkly edge aided by the sound of an omnichord, conjuring up images of space cowboys at dawn. Vocalist Jack Blair stood out especially on ‘Four Leaf Clover’ and delivered one of the best performances of the weekend. I’m also reliably informed by the group that bassist Issy Blair has been able to drive dump trucks for over 6 months now which may be a first for CLUNK coverage unless anybody else steps forward.
Eyeing up a change of pace, it was back over to the Sunrise Arena for the crystallised brilliance of Irish musician Maria Somerville and her mythical blend of dream pop meets shoegaze filtered through Irish folk ballad lore. To make out many of the lyrics proved a challenge due to the layered and hazy vocals of the songwriter, this is to be expected though as Somerville and her band laid down swirling endlessly repeating guitar groove that washed over an enraptured and receptive audience. If you think noise rock/dream pop in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Mazzy Star has nothing new to offer then think again as Somerville is something of a revelation laying down her own nuances as she beams out a new originality, heard best in set closer ‘Stonefly’.
Right, what more can we possibly say about the Minehead duo Getdown Services, CLUNK manage to catch their gigs like a bee locates pollen and can you blame us? It’s frantic, hilarious and totally enrapturing to be in the crowd for one of their live sets, it feels as if every stage Ben Sadler and Josh Law touch, more and more people are becoming addicted to this experience that feels so personal, with minimal boundary between audience and performer creating so many memorable experiences. It’s almost inconceivable how quickly songs such as Crisps, Dog Dribble and Get Back Jamie have endeared themselves into the national lexicon.
The trajectory of the duo should have no bounds and next year I expect them to be whipping up frantic crowds in their thousands on a regular basis.
SUNDAY
Sunday entertainment was delivered by a transient mix of artists starting with Anna Phoebe, Saint Etienne, English Teacher and finally bringing the curtain down with the Flaming Lips.
Anna Phoebe’s violin sound-scaping whirled round our slow Sunday afternoon brains, blending recorded samples of spoken word, electronic tracks with her heart-wrenching violin playing. It was completely otherworldly in a way that felt as though nothing could break her spell over the audience. Around the halfway mark of the performance, Phoebe finally picked up the electric synthesiser violin that we had been desperately waiting to hear, and were not disappointed. Running through guitar pedals, she lets out a guttural stream of violin cries, low and moving through your whole body.
Poet Salena Godden joined towards the finale of this journey, to accompany Phoebe’s sound world with ‘My heart is a boat’. Regaling to an attentive crowd the casual racism she encounters, and how she chooses to combat this with kindness and forgiveness, reminding herself and us of others who have had to take the dangerous journey of migration, and how this decision is made in hopes that future generations will not suffer the same difficulty and have a chance at a good life. Anna Phoebe attentively moulded her playing to the story, using only her pedals and a synthesiser to breathe life alongside Godden. It was safe to say that with the conclusion of this set, came much needed pensive thought before we headed across the field.
Saint Etienne delivered a set full of wonderful dance-pop gems that bounced between the otherworldly delights of ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’ to the hazy, lazy shuffle of ‘Spring’ and ‘Like a Motorway’. Just simply gorgeous, euphoric and swoon-some the group battled through various sound issues and brought a wave of 60’s tinted heaven over Henham Park.
English Teacher much like their contemporaries Getdown Services, Lime Garden and Westside Cowboy are another group who have been touring and working endlessly, fortifying their sound and tightening their composure so every live show sounds meticulously on song. ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ is an absolute juggernaut of an indie anthem, and the group have plenty more in their arsenal, throwing down the mantle with highlights such as ‘R&B’, ‘Toothpick’ and ‘Albert Road’. The Leeds combo are burgeoning and album two is being anticipated with restless anticipation and you’d be hard pressed to not see the scale of their live appearances continuing to expand.
Whilst English Teacher were shuffling off stage and The Flaming Lips were setting up I ended up elsewhere, I can’t remember where it may have been in the queue for a burger, waiting for the toilet or just otherwise engaged, so my experience of their set is actually one of an outside participant as when I did return to the second stage I was absolutely mesmerised by a handful of very large pink inflatable robots and an array of colourful balloons that accompanied their opening track ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, it was actually quite extraordinary and from a distance just observing the spectacle proved to be one of the most fascinating experiences of the weekend.
Twenty years on and still as diverse, fascinating and enrapturing as ever, Latitude deserves its longstanding reputation as a facilitator of some of the brightest alternative acts on the circuit, it is the quintessential festival where year on year by looking beneath the headliners there will be an absolute expanse of determined stars playing their hearts out.
Check out some of the pictures from Latitude Festival here:
