With just over a week to go until the gates open, anticipation is building towards the eighth edition of Latitude. Soon the festival’s arenas will be built, the campsites all set for 35,000 revellers and the Latitude sheep will be receiving their annual colourful dye-job. Just before the festivities begin, Latitude is delighted to announce the final musicians, artists, film-makers, cabaret performers, scientists and more joining the bill for the UK’s favourite multi-arts festival. 

NEW MUSIC ADDTIONS 

Latitude is thrilled to announce another fantastic addition to the BBC Radio 6 Music Stage; Ivor Novello winning writer Richard Ashcroft. With Ashcroft as their frontman, The Verve were one of the defining bands of the nineties; landmark album Urban Hymns sold over 12 million copies, the band performed headline slots at major festivals, and the 1997 single Bittersweet Symphony is an enduring British anthem. A successful artist in his own right, Ashcroft has released three solo albums. With a wealth of crowd pleasing classic tracks as well as new material, Ashcroft’s performance promises to be the perfect way to spend a Saturday evening at Latitude. 

Also added to the BBC Radio 6 Music Stage is singer/songwriter and former frontman of festival big-hitters Supergrass, Gaz Coombes, whose experimental yet melodious solo tunes promise to be a highlight of the weekend. 

Getting the party started In The Woods on Thursday night will be Latitude’s broadcast partner BBC Radio 6 Music. Latitude and 6 Music are excited to announce that two of 6 Music’s DJs will be throwing a Welcome Party and you’re invited!  The incredible Mary-Anne Hobbs and Craig Charles will take to the decks to play out some of their favourite tunes, getting revellers in the festival mood deep within The Woods. 

Latitude is delighted to announce that The Leisure Society will open the Obelisk Arena on Friday, with a performance of the band’s delicate, complex and earnestly written folk music from their three albums. Twice nominated for Ivor Novello Awards, The Leisure Society have collaborated with Ray Davies and received very high praise from Brian Eno and will kick off the proceedings in style. 

Brand new for 2013 is new music stage The Alcove. Tucked away near the banks of the lake, on the edge of the woods, The Alcove will provide an intimate setting for festival goers to catch some exciting upcoming acts. Latitude is delighted to announce the latest additions to the stage, joining previously confirmed acts Catfish and the Bottlemen, Dems and Duologue. 

Having picked up the Solo Artist Award at the 2013 Rock The House at the House of Commons, singer songwriter Abi Uttley is carving out a name for herself with her engaging style and impressive vocal range. Manchester-based Bipolar Sunshine will follow the release of their anticipated debut EP Aesthetics with an appearance at on The Alcove stage as one of a handful of UK dates. Also appearing will be British singer and Columbia Records signing Chlöe Howl. Emerging in 2012 with single No Strings, a brilliant ode to one night stands, the vivacious 17-year old has since been garnering praise from Pitchfork and The Guardian for her wicked lyrical bite and youthful exuberance. The Establishment, a Nottingham-based indie band formed by former Nottingham Forest star John Burns return to Latitude for a second year running; The Family Rain are three brothers who play high-octane, dirty blues-infused rock 'n 'roll. On the brink of big things; audiences would be wise not to miss their appearance at this year’s festival! 

Alt-pop singer-songwriter Hero Fisher joins the bill on Saturday, a mesmerising performer with a number of impressive accolades under her belt including a concert at the Sydney Opera House. Joining her will be Kins, an Australian four-piece now residing in Brighton whose debut album, the playfully titled Dancing Back And Forth, Covered In Whipped Cream, has drawn comparisons to The xx for its spacey, delicate musicality. East Anglian four-piece Maglia Rose Group, fronted by singer Daisy, will be appearing; officially Adele’s “new favourite artist” Marques Toliver will bring his classical and RnB influenced songs to the stage; on Saturday is one of BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq’s ‘Favourite New Bands’, LA based folk-pop outfit Milo Greene. A four-man, one-woman configuration, the members are multi-instrumentalists who swap roles on stage to create beautiful sun-kissed harmonies and impressive airbrushed sonics. 

The ethereal dream folk of MT. Wolf have wowed critics, including Clash which named the London-based four-piece one of its One’s To Watch 2013, and they will join the bill on Latitude’s newest music stage; meanwhile fans of psychedelia will be delighted to see Syd Arthur, the heirs of the fertile Canterbury music scene of the late 60’s and 70’s, bring the spirit of English progressive rock to Henham Park. Sivu, the hotly tipped solo artist who broke through into the public consciousness earlier this year when the video for his debut single Better Man Than Me, which filmed the 24 year old sing live from inside an MRI scanner clocked up half a million views on YouTube, will bring his sensitive, soaring song writing to Latitude. While Birmingham four-piece Superfood, fresh from a tour with Peace, will treat festivalgoers to a set of the rousing indie rock that is fast winning over influential ears such as those of Zane Lowe. 

Also appearing elsewhere at the festival will be Luke Sital-Singh who has received huge support across BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music from a never ending list of tastemakers including Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq. His second EP Old Flint showcases a young songwriter coming into his own and is guaranteed to earn him yet more critical acclaim and new fans alike. Hailing from Norway, rock, pop and folk singer songwriter Thomas Dybdahl makes the journey to Latitude, expect to hear romantic, introspective, out-going, hum-worthy, adventurous tunes and Naomi Keyte will bring her electric folk to the festival playing tracks from her EP Edge of Morning. 

FILM AND MUSIC 

Total Film is delighted to announce Paddy Considine as the special guest at Latitude, appearing in the Film & Music Arena for a Q&A. Perhaps best known for his partnership with director Shane Meadows, Considine exploded on to the scene as the dangerously disturbed Morell in 1999’s A Room For Romeo Brass, and has since re-teamed with Meadows in 2004’s stunning revenge drama Dead Man’s Shoes and 2009 mock-doc Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee. Labelled “the scariest actor of our time” he is renowned for his intensity but has shown disparate sides in movies as diverse as Last Resort, My Summer Of Love, and The Bourne Ultimatum. His work for TV has been no less commanding, be it investigating the crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper in Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1980 or seeking a killer in The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher: The Murder In Angel Lane. 

Comedian, actor and author Katy Brand will also appear at Latitude in conversation with actor and film-maker Jonny Owen. The two will be introducing the new film Svengali, scripted by Owen and starring Brand which tells the story of a music-mad postman turned band manager, plus hosting a Q&A.

In Pandora’s Playground there will be a new take on a documentary, as Actor and Dylan Thomas fanatic Rhys Ifans goes on a journey of discovery about the Welsh rock and roll poet. An investigation into Dylan's Welshness in the 21st century, but it is also a discussion about language and art and the ways in which Dylan Thomas’ genius with words pervades all of the natural world, with his universal themes of Life and Death and the beauty and sensuality of Nature.  

Mark Lamarr has added more superb names to his popular Gods Jukebox in the Film & Music Arena. Joining Squeeze frontman and his band Glen Tilbrook & The Fluffers and vintage rock ‘n’ roll outfit The Dustaphonics will be Jamaican reggae and rocksteady singer Dave Barker & Sidewalk Doctors. This gifted, but underrated artist has been making quality music since the 1960’s and has worked with everyone from legendary producer Lee Scratch Perry and The Selector. One not to miss! Also performing will be Blues singer & harmonica player Little George Sueref bringing his own unique brand of good rockin' blues to Latitude. If you hear the beat & you have to move your feet, you’re in the right place! 

NEUROSCIENCE VS SEX: WHAT DEFINES ME? 

Wellcome Trust presents Hive by Nick Franglen, perhaps the ultimate in immersive surround-sound experiences.  More than 50 radio sets, each tuned to a different station, will be left to run continuously throughout the festival in an enclosed dome-shaped space.  Hive will be at once a remarkable sound-wall of unrepeatable, complex harmonies and structures, reflecting the daily fluctuations of the combined mass of UK’s radio output as heard in one location – and a powerful comment on the choices we make in filtering that information. Wellcome will also present Nick Franglen in conversation with Dr Marius Kwint, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of Portsmouth, as they discuss the science and aesthetics behind this installation. 

JaneJaney are Set and Costume Designers and Installation Artists who transform spaces and create worlds for festivals, events and performance.  A collaboration of Janey Gardiner and Jane Wheeler, they have years of experience in design and fine art and have worked with everyone from the Royal Opera House to Secret Cinema.  They have brought an Absinthe world to Brighton, an anarchic gentleman’s club to Bath, a Viking extravaganza to Dorset and 1950’s Spain to the Orkney Islands.  This year for Latitude they transform The Faraway Forest into the inner world of your brain and the outer world of your sexuality.  Expect cling film, neon and maybe even a little bit of disco. 

Tim Dow Design is pleased to have managed the team that painted his design for the Amsterdam facades in The Faraway Forest.  Tim is an artist, craftsman and designer, who over the past 20 years has honed his various skills working in a variety of different fields. From painting, sculpting, wood and metal work, for events, theatre, TV, commercial props, window displays and industrial concealments, to graphic design, digital art, club decor and leatherwork. 

China Jordan and Lauren Griffin will be creating Red Light Alter Ego, an installation in The Faraway Forest based on this year’s arts theme, What Defines Me? Attraction is personal choice, personal desire. But how we come to decide what we find attractive is a mystery. All we know for certain is that we like what we like. Using the iconic Barbie doll, participants are encouraged to make the clothes, apply the make-up, or even create tattoos and style the hair.  The dolls are there to represent a blank canvas for each person to work with and project their ideology. Later, as the night time comes and the sun sets, the area will be transformed into a world filled with lust, seduction and arousal. The ladies and gentlemen of the night will come out to play and show themselves for who they really are. 

FASHION, CABARET AND LIVE ART 

Storm Models, Jamie Laing & Bip Ling present the Latitude Graduate Fashion Show featuring students from Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion and Chelsea College of Art and Design displaying their collections across menswear, womenswear, print, textiles, knitwear and fashion design technology.  Representing Central Saint Martins will be Alex Huang, Henry Foster, Pablo Martin-Oritz, Beth Postle, Matty Bovan, Lily Atwood and Carrie Jieqiong. From LCF will be Jeyanthy Balakrisnen, Anna Bykova, Rebecca Louise Haddaway, Camilla Ambler and Su Jin Kim. Graduates from Chelsea College of Art and Design will be Sophie Hurley-Walker, Eve Johnson, Jen Cheema, Rosie Chandler, Natasha Hulse, Emily Boxall and Matt Jacques. 

London's most vibrant venue for new theatre, comedy and cabaret and the leading home of alternative performance, Soho Theatre will present a programme of shows from the UK’s most glamorous and innovative performers. It will bring acts as diverse as Grammy award-winning cabaret superstar and blow-torch singer Lady Rizo, the caustic and catchy musical comedy duo Bourgeois and Maurice, 2011 Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Adam Riches, unbelievable sketch group Late Night Gimp Fight and Jonny Woo, who will present his third show of the weekend Wonder Woo-Man, a charming and unusual coming-of-age story that begins with a six year old boy’s obsession with Wonder Woman. 

Art and sci-fi meet in The Mothership Collective, a project devised by artist/lecturer Harold Offeh with students from Leeds Metropolitan University. This year the Mothership lands at Latitude, where the collective in the guise of visitors from outer space will be gathering data on human behaviour. Through a series of playful and performative interactions, audiences will be invited to participate in activities exploring utopian visions over three days.

A specially commissioned performance for the festival The Wagon is a live performance that recalls the travelling quack healer, the nomad, or the mummers cart. Audiences are invited to encounter the strange characters that inhabit a house-in-a-handcart by a band of tricksters. The Wagon moves around the festival site – inviting audiences to consider: Where are they going? Can the wagon heal you? Who are these freaks and oddities? Hear their stories of rejection and hope.

Performance and Theatre group Needless Alley, led by Xavier de Sousa, present Almost Xav for Latitude. This character explores failure within performance, bringing the early 20^th Century DADA movement; whereby followers rejected idealism, intellectual conventions and modern society’s unchecked embrace of rationalism and progress; to a contemporary setting. Elsewhere, Dans La Poche presents an update to the age-old myth of the travelling charlatan with The Brooklyn Healer, the story of a Brooklyn mafia hitman given the gift of healing by a dying Chinese man who dispenses cures from the comfort of a five-door salon. 

COMEDY 

Over in the Literary Arena the crowds will be entertained with a variety of MC’s across the weekend including John Robins named “comedy’s best kept secret” by The Skinny; John Kearnes who has been causing a stir with his offbeat, high energy, lunacy; comedian and writer Alex Edelman; Kwame Asante, winner of the Chortle Student Comedian Award in 2012, finalist in the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year and recently named as 'one to watch' by Time Out and relative newcomer and Oxford graduate, Ivo Graham who won the So You Think You’re Funny New Act Award. 

THE KITCHEN 

Another eagerly-awaited new addition to Latitude is Gizzi Erskine’s food area The Kitchen which will combine cookery demonstrations from some of the best chefs in the business with food-related performances and a nightly after-hours kitchen party every night. 

For her inaugural line-up Gizzi will welcome a selection of hilarious cabaret acts who firmly believe you should always play with your food. Trixie Malicious will keep it fruity with a Hawaiian-a-Go-Go act that combines hula, pineapple worship and lots of cocktail umbrellas, as will the tapper Josephine Shaker with a performance inspired Carmen Miranda and Yma Sumac. As the sun goes down, Gizzi’s kitchen will heat up with Je T’aime, a burlesque artist who will do things you didn’t believe it was possible to do with gravy in her legendary Drunken Housewife Turkey Act. And fresh from suspending herself by her hair in The Faraway Forest, Fancy Chance will push her limits yet again with acts about eating super-hot chillies and the dangers inherent in eating mysterious mushrooms. 

TICKET INFORMATION 

Tickets are now on sale, subject to booking fees. 

Weekend adult tickets                                                       £182.50
Weekend accompanied teen ticket (13-15 years)       £132.50
Weekend child (5-12 years) tickets                                              £5.00
Adult day tickets Fri, Sat, Sun                                             £77.50
Child (5-12 years) day tickets Fri, Sat, Sun                        £5.00
Campervan Permit                                                             £40-80
Locker                                                                                   £16.00

Weekend ticket prices include car parking and camping. Day tickets include car parking only. For those purchasing weekend accompanied teen tickets, please note all teenagers must be accompanied by an over 18 and as such teen tickets can only be purchased at the same time as an adult ticket.

Latitude Festival 2013 takes place Henham Park Estate,  Southwold, Suffolk between Thu 18th to Sun 21st July 2013 Tickets on sale here.