Florence and the Machine will headline her first UK festival this summer after it was announced she will top the bill at this year’s Latitude event in July.
Speaking about the booking, Latitude organiser Melvin Benn revealed his confidence in the singer, who recently took home the Best British Album award at the 2010 Brit Awards, convinced him to book her in September: “We were so sure that she would come through as being as strong as she is,” he told BBC 6 Music.
Florence is joined by fellow headliners Vampire Weekend and Belle & Sebastian, who recently announced plans for a new album.
Other acts confirmed for the event, which attracts over 30,000 fans to Henham Park in Suffolk include Empire of the Sun, The xx, The Horrors and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It is the wide-range of acts which Latitude is known for however, and this year will be no different with the likes of the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company, author Bret Easton Ellis, poet Wendy Cope and a half-hour excerpt of Hair: The Musical all featuring over the weekend.
Despite the growing interest in Latitude, which offers a different experience to many of the summer festivals, Melvin Benn revealed he is content with the current size and scope of the event: “I intend to make sure it doesn’t become too big,” he said. “It’s growing at the rate that it should grow at. It’s about right.”
The festival, which was curated in 2006, will take place between the 16th and 18th of July.