Client: Festival Republic
Location: Henham Park, Suffolk
Dates: July 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

For four years now, Festival Republic’s award wining Latitude has been unlike any other British festival; each year has seen the festival’s creators develop their highly unique approach to presentation and design, consistently offering a wonderfully diverse range of artists from all arenas of the arts spectrum. Where else can you watch the enchanting live performance of Paper Cinema or a production from the Young Vic and then be inspired by poets like Simon Armitage and Andrew Motion? Or chill out with some artists busy at work in the woods followed by a bit of late night cabaret? Not to mention some of the other prestigious names on offer, such as BAFTA, Sadler’s Wells, National Theatre, The Royal Opera and Radio One, Two and Four.

The site is stunning. It's certainly the most picturesque festival I've ever been too
Telegraph.co.uk

Festival director Melvin Benn, the visionary behind Latitude and long-time veteran of managing large-scale events and the driving force behind numerous successful festivals for over twenty years. Over the years, Lavish have had pleasure to work with Melvin on a number of occasions, and since the conception of Latitude Festival in 2006 have been responsible for creating the Festival’s iconic look; that bespoke mixture of intimacy and impact.

Ami, thank you so much for all of your hard work and creativity and wonderful efforts that you and of course your crew, so wonderfully led by Toby, manage to create at Latitude.
It really is a treat, Thank you.
Melvin Benn, 2009

One of the most characteristic qualities of Latitude is the highly successful integration of cross-platform and mixed-media art works into the framework of the rest of the Festival. Everywhere you go on the site set into the beautiful grounds of Henham Park, from the bar areas to the main arena, there’s an unusual sculpture, an interesting painting or a surreal event that grabs your attention.

To see huge crowds of people sitting amongst valuable works of art with no walls around and no severe people telling them to step away, actually enjoying the work, is incredible for me.
Ami Jade Cadillac

Down in the woods, these art works are particularly prevalent. Here a number of artists specially commissioned by Lavish, have transformed the scenery into a strange exotic, wonderland. Their work (much of which actually done in situ over the course of the three day Festival) hangs from trees, emerges suddenly from behind foliage, and jumps out at unsuspecting passer-bys, creating playful and unlikely juxtapositions with the surrounding landscape.

Delicate neon-lit, Buddhist inspired words like “Harmony”, “Respect” and “Tranquility” by Caroline Wright hung throughout the area next to major large-scale spray paint graffiti by Mode 2 and Neil Antcliff aka Foundry whose giant mural of Michael Jackson loomed over the Festival-goers for a brief period. Jake Clark’s elaborate fake signs and pictures of empty suburban environments hung on the trees interspersed with Gabi Swiatkowska’s fine art inspired decoratively framed paintings beguiled viewers whilst works by Paul Burgess and James Rueben responded with a sense of mischief and irony to both the iconography of rock stars and the pastoral painting of Constable and Gainsborough.

This kind of imagery, displaced of its normally urban framework, provoked a whole range of new questions, challenging viewers to consider the role art could play in such an environment, its relationship with the rest of the Festival, the cult of the celebrity and icon worship, the tensions between public and private and so on.

And this year for the first time at Latitude, a specially selected panel of highly respected critics from a range of fields led a series of discussions and conversations with the artists involved the in Open Art exhibition, ‘Sharing Art Without Barriers’. Arts commentator Louise Gray took on the role of discussion host and was joined by the likes of such figures as Anne Hilde Neset, the Deputy Editor of 'The Wire', Ben Borthwick, Tate Modern curator since 2002.

Anne Hilde Neset, Ben Borthwick and I were interested in how the context of the music festival affected the work of the artists involved and were curious that Latitude was interested, unusually so for events of this nature, in programming a widespread artistic practice. We were keen to talk to the artists about recurring themes and areas of interest. We were pleased that nearly all the artists involved in Open Art came to our series of two panel discussions and spoke so engagingly to us and the audience who came back, even after the rainstorms.
Louise Gray

We had an interesting discussion around issues presented by the art at Latitude, such as how does presenting artworks outdoors in a rural landscape affect its presentation and reception; and how does a music festival setting affect the viewing. All the artists had interesting points with regards to the setting ¬ encounters with their audience ("I had phone calls at 3am by drunk people wanting to discuss my portraits"), a kind of audience contact not often had when exhibiting in a traditional gallery context, which raised poignant issues around vulnerability and what is personal and what is public. Many of the artists had engaged literally with the Latitude music programme, by portraying the artists and reflecting on issues around fandom and icons.
Anne Hilde Neset

Outside the woods in the rolling fields of surrounding area and the Festival’s main area, Lavish continued to make their creative presence known with the wonderful custom-painted facades announcing each arena; a selection of fantastical, straight-out-of-Wonderland style sculptures like a giant silver shoe, one of many curiosities scattered throughout the place; and the perennially painted multi-coloured sheep, looking quite at home as they mingled peacefully in the midst of such oddities.

Lavish were also responsible for presenting two magical lakeside events, enrapturing audiences in a stunning kaleidoscopic aural and visual feast. As night descended, two giant spheres, a flautist in one, a dancer in another, emerged on the lake to perform ‘The Music of Spheres’, a spectacular aquatic ballet. Then following this was Baroque-shock, ten-piece pop orchestra The Irrepressibles in a performance of their ‘Human Music Box’. Inside a rotating six-by-six metre box, the orchestra moving like clockwork marionettes re-created the exuberant theatricality of a Baroque-inspired fantasy, alternating between moments of emotional intensity to moments of playful abandon.

This year, over the course of three sell-out days, over 25,000 people enjoyed the many marvels and delights of such an exceptional festival. And as the relationship between Lavish and Festival Republic continues to flourish, quickly establishing Latitude as one of Britain’s most exciting and unique festival experiences, expect next year to be even better!