'Making 3,000 toasties at Latitude is my dream job'

Elouise Lavington estimates her stall will sell 3,000 cheese toasties at the festival

A former chef who started her own festival food business after maternity leave said making 3,000 cheese toasties at the Latitude was a dream come true.

Elouise Lavington, from Ipswich, started Otis Breading in 2022, with pitches at Glastonbury, Download and Latitude in Suffolk this year.

The business is named after her son, Otis.

She said: "Last year it all went a bit crazy, winning a business boost award meant we could invest in loads of equipment so we could cater for the bigger festivals.

"I've always worked in hospitality, since I was 12 and worked in a pub. I came to Latitude when I was 17 and remember saying [I'd have my own stall] then, so I'm absolutely loving it."

Kevin Cayley, centre, helped out at the first Latitude Festival and has come back every year since

Across the festival there are more examples of local connections and people from Suffolk and East Anglia who make Latitude what it is.

Festival goers can go swimming in the lake in a supervised area, and also get a quick free punt tour.

Kevin Cayley lives "two fields away" in Blyford and has been organising the 'gondoliers' since the inaugural Latitude in 2006.

He said: "We're just bunch of local guys who get together. Some of us give our money to the air ambulance, and we just enjoy ourselves.

"It's a tricky thing compared to Cambridge, the middle of the lake is deep enough for the pole to not make the bottom, so on a windy day you can get a little stranded."

Lara Bentley and Lucy Potter are gaining work experience at Latitude for their journalism degrees

Over in the forest area, journalism students Lara Bentley, from Sudbury, and Lucy Potter, from Norwich, are setting up their camera to record a workshop on protest and speech writing.

They are both heading into their third year at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and have come to Latitude as part of their work experience for their degree course.

Ms Bentley said: "I love hearing people's stories. I also love music, so it's great to be here making contacts and meeting new people."

Ms Potter said: "We're hoping to get a good mix of opinions and views. Obviously with politics and protests it is very divided, but telling people's stories is really interesting."

Actors Charlie Cameron and Joe McArdle with INK director Julia Sowerbutts ahead of their show in the Outpost at Latitude

Latitude has lots of partnerships with Suffolk organisations: running a children's poetry competition with BBC Radio this year and the longstanding relationship with BBC Music Introducing in Suffolk picking opening acts each day for the Alcove stage.

This year, for the first time, the Halesworth-based INK festival is putting on a showcase of new short plays.

Julia Sowerbutts, artistic director for INK, said: "To be truthful, I think [writer] Jan Etherington, who's done a few things at INK, said to them 'why haven't you got INK here?' So they said 'ah! we'll ask them!'"

"And I think we are the nearest theatre to Latitude, so we should be here."

The Latitude Festival runs until Sunday.