Now we “do Glastonbury” most years, but having missed out on a ticket this year we decided to try something new, so off to the wonderful Suffolk countryside to Latitude Festival we went. I’d never been to an alternative UK festival, so was super excited to make a comparison, and see what the festival had to offer. Latitude’s reputation as a family festival I was particularly keen to exploit, given we were going as a family with our 8-year-old son. Further, there were multiple families we knew going with kids, so I knew he would have a ball with his buddies. Despite tons on offer for kids, given it falls in term time, there has never been a plethora of friends for him to hang out with at Glastonbury.
Latitude Festival 2025
Latitude did not disappoint. It is relatively small and easy to navigate—a capacity of 45,000 vs. some 220,000 at that other festival—, with the ability to bump into and meet friends frequently and easily, and to hop from stage to kids field in a flash, ensuring both adults and children get plenty of time to play. Further, little legs don’t get too tired too quickly! The ‘Arena’, set either side of the beautiful Henham Park Lake, is quirky and interesting, with lots of hidden wonders in the forest areas to explore as well as provide shelter from the frequent switch between burning sun and pelting showers.
Each day started firmly in the kids field after picking up a coffee at the Fire Garden Birdbox in the Trailer Park and a quick hop past the Greenpeace area to see how long the queue was for the climbing nets (too long, again, let’s try again tomorrow!). The kids’ field, a magical place of creativity centered around the obligatory Helter Skelter (watch those elbows!), provided children with endless crafting opportunities including copper keyring making, bracelet making and painting. The building of a new Greenpeace Warrior Ship was a particular favourite, allowing even the youngest of children to, subject to grown-ups signing a disclaimer, pick up a saw, hammer and nails and help build the ship. For those wanting to avoid tools, stick jigsaw-making, stained-glass mosaic, book making and the beaten copper workshop were also on offer!
My son (and his buddies) loves bugs and beasts. What 8-year-old boy doesn’t. So he was keen to join the earthworms and soil beasts walk through the woods with the hugely engaging Dr David Jones from the Natural History Museum. David is an entomologist specialising in rainforest insects and soil ecology and has done fieldwork in many countries as well as published more than 50 research articles in scientific books and journals. What I thought would be a (potentially boring) walk in the woods looking for worms was quite the opposite, and it felt like a genuine privilege to be in such intimate company with the multi-award-winning and funny public speaker. Dr Jones captured the imaginations of both the adults and kids in the same group for an hour, and we found not only worms, but beetles, grasshoppers and even a young toad.
Across the main path opposite the kids field was a new home for the curiously entertaining Cosmic Shambles Forest of Science and Culture where wonder and entertainment intertwined between the trees, from which huge planets dangled. Alongside exhibits from Crab Museum and The Royal Museums Greenwich was the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) stand, visiting the forest from its base in Teddington, South West London. This was a stall we would go back to frequently, and one whereby many young children surrounded in droves to try and balance the 3D printed robots on top of each other. Manage to balance 4 and you get to keep one, balance 7 and you keep the set. This was a challenge that my son, and many others with any minuscule sign of a competitive streak, could not ignore. It took three days, but we got seven! The NPL staff were great for a chat whilst we failed miserably to try and remove our kids from this stall, and I gained a great tip for a band playing at the Trailer Park stage….
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Latitude Festival 2025 (Kalpesh Patel)
The Trailer Park was Latitude’s ‘South West Corner’, brimming with equivalent craziness and mischief set amongst a hamlet in the trees. A hidden après-ski nightclub complete with snow, only to be found if you sneak in the old caravan; the ‘low-cares’ airline, Ryanair had a booking office where they are doing their bit to be planet-friendly by making the flying experience as miserable as possible. Oh, and if you have knees, don’t forget to pay extra for them. The Trailer Park’s centrepiece was however, a stage which featured the most fun and mostly bonkers bands of the weekend as well as secret sets from the likes of Feeder. Whilst the kids built a fire from sticks collected from surrounding trees, we bounced to the catchy tunes of energetic duo The Foreign Locals. Oh, and at night, our favourite coffee spot came alight!
A hop across the bridge, stopping to catch the enigmatic water laser show en route, and we were back at the main Obelisk Stage to catch Basement Jaxx, Sting, Fatboy Slim, Elbow, Alison Moyet, Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol and, at the nearby Second Stage, Feeder to name but a few. A fun and family-friendly line-up brimming with nostalgia. Further, the kids were occupied throughout these sets. Whoever at Latitude thought of the ‘cup collecting’ initiative is a genius. The festival was spotless, largely due to all the children being engaged in cup collecting duties, stacking metres of hauled used paper cups together to exchange back at the bar for 10p each….maximum £25 per day, ching ching!
It was only the start of Elbow’s set that failed to somewhat draw the audience. I think both Guy and the rest of us would have been rather watching the Women’s Euro 2025 final on the Obelisk stage’s big screens, with Euro champions England facing off to World champions Spain. Big screens around the festival had been drafted in for the momentous occasion, and it was pretty special to be sharing such an immense game. Well done Lionesses! Back to the festival, and it was hard to avoid a stop at the bubble tent company, where the majority of bubble wands and swords were testers, available for use as you wish with bubbles blasting out continuously for as long as the festival was open.
When the heavens opened, the perfect place to be was in the Theatre Arena, and that’s where we landed just as the skies roared one morning. However, having already performed on the Saturday, word had spread that YUCK Circus was a must-see, and the queue to get in on the Sunday morning wrapped up and back the main path. As the rain started to pour, we were the last group to get in and grab the last few seats. I wasn’t expecting what I saw, or to spend the next hour simultaneously belly laughing and cringing! An absolutely brilliant all-Australian powerhouse of female circus performers combining award-winning comedy and elite acrobatics whilst bending gender stereotypes and female social norms.
Overall, a wonderful weekend which felt easy to navigate and way less tiring than Glastonbury. It also wasn’t so small that you covered everything there was to do in a weekend. I felt we only scratched the surface, and there is plenty we want to go back for next year. Thank you Latitude!
Feature on Latitude Festival 2025 by Lauren Patel. Photography by Kalpesh Patel.
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