Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn has been announced as a special guest performer for this summer’s upcoming festival, Latitude.
The Festival took to their Instagram page to share the good news.
The event will return this year after its year hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions; the annual festival will take place on 22nd July and will run until 25th July 2021. Albarn will join the ranks of an impressive line-up to perform at the festival’s triumphant return. The ‘Parklife’ singer will perform on the lakeside Waterfront stage at the event’s venue at Henham Park located in Suffolk East England. The artist will have a great opportunity to play his new material from his upcoming release. Albarn’s second solo studio album entitled ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’ is set to be released in the winter of this year, 12th November 2021.
Albarn is set to perform during the evening on 24th July 2021 and is billed within the line-up as the ‘Saturday Sunset Guest on the Waterfront’. The festival’s website has published the following statement concerning the event’s new act, within the statement, the festival announces the news whilst describing Albarn’s influential status within the music industry. “We are delighted to reveal that music royalty Damon Albarn will be performing at cinch presents Latitude this summer! The Blur and Gorillaz icon is joining us for a very special Saturday sunset performance. Damon will be performing songs from his extensive back catalogue on our stunning lakeside Waterfront stage.”
Latitude festival announced only last month that the event would be going ahead this year, those in charge confirmed that the festival would be at full capacity during July. The event has been following the Government scheme, Event Research Programme (ERP) to reopen its gates this year. This is a new programme set up to enforce people’s safety within events amongst the COID-19 pandemic, even as the restrictions are removed. The programme examines risks that may lead to exposure to the virus and put into place procedures and structures to limit said risk. The festival is able to run this year due to the series of test events organised by the scheme, as well as the Prime Minister’s announcement stating that legal restrictions will be lifted on 19th July 2021. The test events held gave practical and hopeful results to the Event Research Programme. It was reported out of those who attended the pilot events, 28 attendees tested positive for COVID-19.
The Festival director, Melvin Benn, provided the following statement published on the festival’s webpage “We have been working extremely hard to make sure that Latitude Festival can go ahead safely at full capacity. After much discussion with the Government, I can now officially announce that we WILL be going ahead and that we will be joining the 3rd phase of the Event Research Programme as a test event! Becoming an ERP event gives us the security of going ahead. Crucially the additional research collected at Latitude will benefit all festivals and live events moving forward. After many months without live music and arts, we are ecstatic to return with a full capacity festival. Restarting festivals is crucially important to the wellbeing of everyone in society and we hope that Latitude will be the first of many festivals to take place this summer!”
Benn continues to describe the precautions taken by the event’s team and the requirements of those who attend. “We are working closely with the ERP experts, scientists and in particular the director of Public Health in Suffolk on the specific conditions of entry that will enable the festival to operate safely and we will publish those details on our website as soon as they are ready to share. One thing we do know is that everyone will be welcome to attend as long as they have a negative lateral flow test OR proof of two vaccinations. We will continue to keep you updated as soon as we have more information”
The festival’s return will also see British alt-rockers Wolf Alice take headliner stage on Friday 23rd along with various stages boasting strong line-ups throughout the event. Albarn will not be the only iconic artist to perform, English electro heroes The Chemical Brothers will headline on Saturday 24th July as well as indie legends Supergrass, billed as Saturday Lunchtime Guest. Other acts joining Albarn at the event’s return include Bastille, Rudimental, Kaiser Chiefs, 80s singer Rick Astley and Hot Chip. Also included with the musical acts is actor and comedian Bill Bailey, billed as a special Sunday Afternoon guest.
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Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
