Latitude 2024: Suffolk girl,11 opens festival with poem


Jon Wright/BBC Side angle of Anna on a stage with a microphoneJon Wright/BBC

An 11-year-old opened the Latitude Festival after winning a competition with a poem about the environment.

Anna, who lives near Lavenham, read The Mother Tree on the Waterfront stage in Henham Park, Suffolk.

She said: “It was fun, I enjoyed it. I wasn’t really that nervous.”

Her festival experience was also filmed by the BBC’s Newsround programme.

Jon Wright/BBC BBC Radio Suffolk's Sarah Lilley with long blonde hair and khol-rimmed eyes, Anna, with long blonde hair wearing a grey t-shirt and a pick plaid shirt and festival director Melvin Benn in a light blue shirt and short white hair and glasses standing on a stageJon Wright/BBC

Anna’s family joined crowds to watch the performance.

Her English teacher, Julia Rivington, from Old Buckenham Hall, also came alone to support her.

She said: “I was super proud of her. I’ve seen Anna perform before, so I knew she’d be excellent.”

She was introduced on stage by festival director Melvin Benn and BBC Radio Suffolk presenter Sarah Lilley.

Ms Lilley said: ” What an amazing opportunity for a young person.”

Mr Benn told BBC Radio Suffolk he had big ambitions for including more young voices at Latitude.

“Words are really important to the festival, with singer songwriters, authors and poetry, but it’s taken me 18 years to think we should have a young poets competition.

“Kids have become such a fundamental part of Latitude, so I talked to the BBC, and they were really enthusiastic.

“We’ve started with Suffolk this year and hopefully next year it’ll be for the whole of East Anglia.

“Fingers crossed for 2026, which will be our 20th anniversary, we can make it a national competition which would be amazing… but entirely dependent on yourselves at the BBC to do that.”

Jon Wright/BBC Anna stands in front of a TV camera with Latitude pink sheep in the backgroundJon Wright/BBC

The Latitude Festival runs until Sunday.

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