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25th June 2025

Latitude Festival preview: A weekend of great music in Suffolk

The Mancunion takes a look at Latitude Festival’s 2025 lineup ahead of the event due to take place at Suffolk’s Henham Parl in July
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Latitude Festival preview: A weekend of great music in Suffolk
Credit: Latitude Festival / Note By Note Media

Latitude Festival is fast becoming one of the most popular summer events in the UK, with over forty thousand people expected to attend this year. Latitude’s main stage – the Obelisk Arena – is set to play host to some of the biggest names in music. This includes nineties dance icon Fatboy Slim, The Police’s Sting, Snow Patrol and Kaiser Chiefs. However, while all of this is very exciting, it’s always best to focus more on artists you might have heard less about. Also at the Obelisk Arena is Billy Bragg, whose forty-year long career has seen the staunchly political songwriter span folk, punk and alt-rock. If you’re looking to get a taste of his sound, ‘New England’ or his Thatcher-era protest song ‘There Is Power in a Union’ work well. Providing something a bit more danceable, Maribou State are due to bring their hugely successful and infectious beats to the Obelisk too.

On the Second Stage, Irish garage-punk band Sprints will showcase their driving instrumentation combined with Karla Chubb’s powerful vocals, and will be sure to get the crowd going. Songs like ‘Adore Adore Adore’ and ‘Up and Comer’ are perfectly angry and come with justified anger towards a world that tends to treat women with condescension.  Conversely, the Second Stage is also playing home to Air, whose beautiful downtempo pop is utterly captivating. Their song ‘Sexy Boy’ is instantly recognisable.

Meanwhile, London’s Sorry can also be caught on the Second Stage. Their music defies genre categorisations, combining trip-hop, indie rock and art pop, and ultimately capturing a sort of debauched sadness. At once, their songs are melodic and introspective. ‘Let the Lights On’, for example, sees lead singer Asha Lorenz sings ‘I need you, I want to feel that you need me too’ over a danceable concoction featuring a deep bassline and vocal interpolation.

The Sunrise Arena is due to play host to even more great artists. Honeyglaze, for example, make unassumingly complex indie rock that acts as the perfect setting for Anouska Sokolow’s self-effacing lyrics. Some of their songs are out-and-out bangers, while others are more atmospheric. Their influences include Tony Allen, the drummer behind much of Fela Kuti’s best work, the Midwest emo of American Football and Adrianne Lenker’s folk songwriting. To get a taste of their sound, it’s worth listening to ‘Ghost’ and ‘Don’t’, both taken from their most recent album Real Deal.

Up-and-comers The Orchestra, For Now are sure to entertain with their insane and powerful mix of art-rock, post-rock and pretty much everything in between. Featuring both a cellist and a violinist, their debut EP Plan 75 is about as eclectic as can be across only four songs. ‘Wake Robin’, for example, is evocative of the best of Black Country, New Road, while ‘The Strip’ is unhinged and punky. They live up to their name and are very much orchestral, with each of their seven instruments given the space to shine and working perfectly alongside each other. Brighton’s Lambrini Girls will also be sure to get the crowd going with their righteous feminist punk.

The Sunrise Arena also plays host to two of the most notable up-and-coming acts from Manchester. jasmine.4.t, the first UK artist to be signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records, creates brilliant and slightly stripped-back indie rock. It is also worth noting that she adds much needed transgender representation to the music community, being a transgender woman herself and having an all-transgender backing band. Meanwhile, Westside Cowboy are not only one of the best up-and-comers from Manchester but the UK as a whole, ploughing their own path separate from the London-centric and cerebral underground scene by making defiantly accessible music. They blend originality and listenability perfectly and are well worth checking out. W.H. Lung are another brilliant Manchester act due to perform at the Sunrise Arena.

The Alcove plays host to even more Manchester representation. Notably, TTSSFU – aka Tasmin Nicole Stephens – brings homemade shoegaze captivating enough to get them signed to Partisan Records, one of the biggest independent labels going. The stage features RIP Magic, fresh off the back of supporting Fat Dog on a tour that included a sold-out show at Manchester Academy. A band that maintains a high degree of mystery about themselves, they have caught the attention of Tyler, the Creator, who approached them after a set to ask for a listen to their demos. Their debut release Loot / Dox features two songs that blend atmospheric and danceable beats with warped and snottily delivered vocals.

Overall, Latitude Festival boasts an impressive line-up even beyond the headline names, and is sure to be a great weekend. Beyond the music, the festival features comedy acts including Taskmaster host Greg Davies, a theatre boasting full-on plays and talks by various authors, podcasters and journalists at the Listening Post and Bookshop stages. There will also be DJs playing late into the night, as Henham Park is due to be illuminated by sets from a selection of legendary electronic names.

Credit: Latitude Festival / Note By Note Media

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