News

Latitude Travel News

• 13th Jul 2010

Latitude Festival returns for an incredible sold out 5th Edition on 15-18th July 2010 set in the beautiful countryside of Henham Park Estate on Suffolk’s Sunrise Coast.

Celebrating its fifth year, Latitude continues to lead the way as a bold and pioneering festival cherry-picking the very best from the worlds of music, theatre, comedy, literature, film, poetry, dance, art, fashion and cabaret and bringing them together for one glorious weekend. It is a place like no other; an intimate world away from reality that encourages you to be all that you’ve ever wanted to be whilst indulging in the spirit of exploration and discovery.

Latitude 2010 is sold out, tickets will not be available anywhere onsite so please do travel to the festival unless you have tickets purchased from an authorised outlet. Please do not buy tickets from touts, any tickets which are not genuine will be turned away from the festival.

Organisers Festival Republic are keen to encourage festival goers to respect the local environment and local residents and have put in place public transport options to encourage everyone to leave their cars at home: –

TRAVELLING TO THE FESTIVAL

Getting to Latitude Festival couldn’t be easier with a convenient network of coaches, trains and shuttle buses to get right into the heart of the festival.

With transport to the festival the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions, public transport options are essential to lightening the festival’s environmental load. Not only that, it will also help to reduce congestion in the car parks and on the surrounding roads.

BY BIKE & FOOT

Travelling to Latitude Festival by bike is of course the most environmentally friendly way of getting there. There will be bike racks available onsite for cyclists inside Green Gate on the A145. Day ticket holders arriving by bike should use the day entrance on the B1123 to get onto site nearest to the day ticket holder entrance.

National Express East Anglia have asked us to discourage festival goers from bringing their bikes on the trains as space is limited.

It is not possible to approach the festival on foot – the roads around the site are not suitable for pedestrians – please use the local buses provided or the Halesworth Shuttle bus. See further information on our website link

COACH SERVICES

We have joined up with National Express and Anglian Bus to offer a variety of convenient and good value public transport options.

Ecotravel Fact: Travelling in a full coach is the greenest form of motor transport with each journey generating less than 10% of CO2 per person than those who travel alone by car. (1)

More details of the above coach services are available on our website link

TRAIN TRAVEL

Travelling by train to Latitude Festival has never been easier. Reduced rate fares are available from your nearest major NXEA station or online. Customers are advised to avoid travelling via Halesworth station at peak times as capacity and frequency is very limited.

National Express East Anglia have agreed to honour train tickets to and from Halesworth on Ipswich trains if Halesworth trains are too busy.

For further information on rail services or to book tickets call 08456 007245 (National Express East Anglia) or 08457 484950 (National Rail Enquiries) or visit link

Train tickets from any station to Halesworth and Ipswich are now on sale with no booking fee at crosscountrytrains.co.uk. Book your tickets early so you’ve got the best chance of getting a great deal.

Ecotravel Fact: Travelling by train emits three and half times less CO2 than travelling alone by car. (2)

SHUTTLE BUSES

Shuttle buses run by Anglian Bus will leave regularly from both Ipswich and Halesworth train stations and will travel straight through the gates into site to the festival bus station. The shuttle buses run regularly, the operation should be smooth and hassle free and there will be enough shuttle buses to meet the demand. Full info can be found at link

LOCAL BUS SERVICES

Anglian Bus are running a special bus from Southwold to the Latitude Festival bus station via Wangford, Reydon and Blythburgh in the morning and early afternoon returning after 23.00 each night. Please see link for the full timetable.

CAR TRAVEL

Henham Park, the site of Latitude Festival, is between the A12 and A145 north of Blythburgh in Suffolk. From the A12 and from the A145 follow the Festival signs. Please note that clearway orders are in place on the A12 and A145 which means that you can’t stop on the public highway and the police will be enforcing this. Please don’t stop but follow the signage straight into the car parks. Please don’t use your sat nav as temporary routings and one way systems will be in operation.

Tickets will be checked inside the site and not on the gates with the A12 and A145. Please travel straight into site where you will be able drop passengers off, find out answers to any questions you might have about the festival and exit back onto the main roads.

Ecotravel Tip: If you must bring your car, please consider transporting as many people as possible and travelling at off peak times. This reduces congestion considerably and for every extra person in your car you drastically reduce the amount of CO2 emissions per person. Having four people in a car actually brings the CO2 per person down to less than on a train! (3)

Peak traffic flows are likely on the afternoon of Thursday 15th July and on the morning of Friday 16th July and then late evening on Sunday 18th July and before noon on Monday 19th July.

Weekend and day car parking is separate to the campsites in adjacent or nearby fields. Parking is included in the price of your ticket. No sleeping, camping or fires are allowed in the car parks.

All drop offs and pick ups are via Red Gate 1 on the A12 including by taxi. You can enter the site, drop off and exit the site via Red Gate 4. For safety reasons, please do not drop passengers off on the main roads, there are no pavements – you can drop them off safely and easily well inside the site. There is no pedestrian entry from the gates on the A12 and the A145 into site so if you are dropping someone off or picking them up, you need to use the drop off / pick up point inside the site.

The routes to the festival will be well signposted and have been publicised via promotional literature, the internet and in written information sent out with all tickets to the event.

Those travelling from the south on the A12 will be directed straight into site from the A12.

Those travelling from the Lowestoft direction on the A12 will be directed straight into site from the A145 via Middle Barn Lane which connects the A12 and the A145

Those travelling from the north on the A145 from the Beccles direction will be directed straight into site from the A145.

LIFTSHARE

If you have to come by car because the bus and train just won’t work for you, please try and fill up all the seats in your car. It really does make a difference to congestion and emissions.

One way to do this is to register for Liftshare and either offer a seat or request a ride on our Latitude Liftshare site. There is a link on the Latitude Festival website and this year we are running a lucky dip for a VIP upgrade for all the passengers in any car arriving full matched via liftshare.

There are almost 900 people registered on Liftshare for Latitude. If just a third of them matched lifts, that’s a potential saving of almost 24 tonnes of CO2. (4) We would like this to at least reach this target so please register for Liftshare and offer a seat in your car, helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Ecotravel Fact: If every car coming to Latitude Festival had 4 people in it, there could be almost 3000 fewer cars and a reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 240 tonne! (5)

DAY TICKET HOLDERS/PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Day ticket holders wishing to travel to site using public transport rather than by lift-sharing or by car are advised to plan their return journey after the main entertainment finishes in advance as there are no train services from Halesworth or Ipswich at that time of night and therefore the shuttle bus will not run at that time. Anglian is running a late night coach to London. Taxi services have been invited to come to site to pick up at this time however it is advisable to book in advance. There is also a day ticket holder campsite onsite for day ticket holders that cannot travel home that night and wish to stay overnight instead and travel home the following morning. Facilities are limited but there is no charge for the use of this campsite.