This year’s line-up is, true to form, a joyful collision of the brilliant and the wilfully ridiculous. Deadletter, who also play the Sunrise Arena, are one of the most thrillingly alive bands in British music right now. If Trailer Park ever needed a house act, it would be My Bad Sister: East London twin sisters whose “Cabarave” (mirrored choreography, technicolour costumes, heavy beats, cockney wit) is one of those acts you have to see to believe. One of Ireland’s most dynamic up-and-coming bands Grooveline return to the Trailer Park with their high energy concoction of funk, groove, hip-hop, rock, jazz and trad.
Trailer Park arrived in the trees at Henham Park in 2019 and has been refusing to leave ever since, with increasing magnificence. What began as a cluster of repurposed vehicles in a woodland clearing has grown into something more like its own republic: a surreal hamlet of caravans, horseboxes, mobile homes and gloriously impractical structures, with its own hours, its own regulars, and its own particular logic. Those who have been there tend to find it hard to explain. Those who haven’t tend to find it hard to stay away. For the twentieth edition of Latitude, it returns with Deadletter, Grooveline, My Bad Sister and many more.
The New York Brass Band, Yorkshire despite the name, bring no gimmicks, no backing tracks and no auto-tune: just seven musicians playing with the kind of joyful, relentless energy that turns fields into congregations. The Scorpios bring something genuinely rare: a Sudanese-London collective whose Arabic rhythms, raw Eastern funk and multi-continental cast create a sound that owes as much to Detroit as it does to Khartoum. Megatrad grew up steeped in Irish traditional music and then decided to see what happened when they added bass, beats and pedal effects, winning best performance at Temple Bar Tradfest in the process.
Holy Youth Movement are a Bristol five-piece whose electronic rock n roll sounds like The Stooges and Underworld finding common ground in a field. Scarsdale Fats channel 70s psychedelia and 90s grunge into something cathartic and very much alive. Darius Zaltash is a British-Iranian artist from Bristol making loud, melodic electronic rock with unfiltered honesty. Flats and Sharps bring fiercely original picking and harmony to the glen. Monkeyfist describe their own music as “bombastic horns, psychedelic guitar and bubbling bass built on chunky techno”. DJ Chris Tofu & Debbralee deliver a truly unique festival experience: remixed sounds meets 1930s swing meets drum and bass rave, gospel and more.
Also joining the bill are FFTP, a soulful acoustic folk duo with an edge; The Turkeys; FÜLÜ, who mix a brass section with electronic sounds; The 45s, with scuzzy riffs and motown classics; The Cacks, a seven-headed beast who create a wild collision of trad Irish soul and modern-day chaos; SAV, who brings electro, acid, breakbeat and underground dance; Dogshow, best described as ‘Boiler Room meets Crufts on a trip to space’; the high energy punk disco queen Gaffe; Foreign Local, ‘A duo with your eyes open but a full band with your eyes closed’; My First Time, with their post-pop sound, driving guitar hooks and waspish vocal delivery; Wednesday Club, and Ed and The Revolutionaries, who deliver rhythm & blues in their own indomitable hard hitting style.
And, as always, there’ll be a few special surprises. But we’ll tell you about those another time…
Alongside the stage, Trailer Park’s baker’s dozen of miniature venues fill out the glen with their usual combination of wit, warmth and mild threat…
Rat Trap, where a gang of rodents at Rat HQ are recruiting new sinners to the cause.
Belly of the Beast – walk along the tongue into the belly of a mythical beast which feeds off of the good vibes of festival goers.
Dr Paul’s Surgery of the Soul, in which mojos are restored with a dose of radical groove therapy.
The Ryanair Customer Service Desk, where you experience zero-frills aviation care.
CaraVandal, where graffiti is the go.
The Lil’ Trailer of Horrors where a spooky story unfolds in the smallest theatre on site.
The Quickie Chapel for all your Vegas needs.
Calvin DeKline – a cutbacks-tastic catwalk where it’s all gone a bit glittery-jacket.
Wildflower Fortunes, where flora and tarot meet.
Fire Garden Birdbox, a jurassic-scale skeleton-bird that travels the land breathing fire at all who come close to her metal nest.
Suffolk’s Saucy Seaside featuring a Southwold-inspired drum n bass beach party.
APRES SKI, a real-life alpine snow scene where it is always 4pm.
Trailer Park is a mischievous piece of Ireland that took up residence in Latitude, and made friends with those who never quite know when bedtime is. It embraces the makers of nonsense, the wonky-eyed street performers, the musicians who want to be down in the crowd as much as on the stage, and the imperfection of everything handmade. We love Latitude more than anywhere because there is so much laughter and enthusiasm everywhere, and we like to bring a bit of noise to the peaceful hills of Henham.
Hugo & Roz Jellet, Trailer Park Creative Producers
Trailer Park kicks off on Thursday with an almighty Irish welcome. It is where the lost come to be found, and where, in Latitude’s twentieth year, the best stories of the weekend will begin.