All-embracing attitude

Now in its fifth year, Latitude is probably the most popular commercial mixed artform festival in Britain. Just over 35,000 people will have spent the weekend on our intimate-ish site in Suffolk, where everything from bands to ballet, poetry to performance art, theatre to cabaret will be on show.
I’m in charge of curating 11 stages on site, and the mission is to find and book all of the things I like or think are inspiring. Certain acts come through ideas that progress and change – the Masked Ball is a good example as it has evolved and expanded across three stages now and really brings a bit of sexy decadence to the festival. Some ideas are pitched, some are found and some are commissioned, because I might love what a theatre company is doing but know they need to do something a little differently to make it work in a festival environment. My inbox is consistently full but it’s absolutely necessary to see work live before it is booked – a lot can change from page to stage.
Mostly, it is through reading a lot and going to see a wide variety of theatre, art, comedy and dance throughout the year – about three to four shows in an average week, across the country – that I’m kept up to speed with what’s going on across the arts. I’m privileged to work with a lot of high calibre companies, be it Derevo or the Royal Shakespeare Company, Liverpool Everyman or Paines Plough. I’m conscious of making it as non-London-centric as possible, but the only hard and fast rule is to always trust my gut instinct: whether it’s work that’s stimulating, intelligent or just great fun, I’ve got to be passionate about. It’s easy to know when I’ve got it right – the tent will be full.
People often have preconceived notions of what production values and audiences are like at a festival. Technically, the show obviously needs to work in a festival environment. So, a massive stage set can be difficult, but not impossible. Each booking needs to work on its own merit and fulfil my ‘greatest hits’ concept of programming; nothing can be there as filler. I’ve approached many companies who haven’t been interested, convinced as they are that festivals are tacky or that our audience will be drunk and on drugs. Others believe the audience won’t like deep, heavy-going or political pieces. My experience is that audiences often appreciate a dark and challenging antidote to the high of the music. Latitude-goers, in particular, are an intelligent and attentive lot.
Our stages are unified by the fact that each programmer has gone after innovative and quality acts. One shouldn’t assume the audience just wants to watch a band and the success of Latitude is more proof that people have increasingly diverse interests; we want to be cerebrally stimulated as well as emotionally and physically moved. We have definitely become more culturally curious as a nation. Latitude was a massive risk in the first year, but we think the model is one that’s likely to be adapted more and more by other festivals – which is great. The only target I’m set is to stay within budget – but the only aim we really have is to make it even better than the year before.