Latitude launches 'art caravan' competition

Latitude 2019

Thursday 18th to Sunday 21st July 2019
Henham Park Estate, Beccles, Suffolk, NR34 8AN, England MAP
£202.50 for the weekend, days £77.50 - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 35,000

Latitude Festival, which takes place for the 14th time over the weekend of Thursday 18th to Sunday 21st July 2019 at Henham Park Estate, Suffolk, has teamed up with Will Hardie, the master craftsman behind Channel 4's Amazing Spaces and Shed of the Year, plus the creative minds behind Electric Picnic festival's Trailer Park to launch an art caravan competition.

Ten grants of up to £2000 will be available for creators to invent, design, build and host their own caravan or mobile structure at this year's Latitude. The most jaw-dropping and inspiring ideas will be developed for a new 'mobiletropolis' set within the festival.

A judging panel led by designer, maker, artist and craftsman Will Hardie will read proposals. Joining Roz and Hugo Jellett, the creative directors of Trailer Park, they will choose the best ideas (or the best sounding creators) and work with them to bring the wacky designs into being. Winners will be invited with a team of friends to host the creation at Latitude.

Will Hardie commented, "I'm delighted to be in involved in this competition, I love that Trailer Park supports people's passion and vision to turn the humble caravan into wonderful and wacky creations and where better to do this than at a festival where all can be entertained and inspired. The British Isles are home to so many creative and eccentric individuals who demonstrate incredible vision, ingenuity and skill in the wacky projects they build at home. This is a chance to bring your crazy inventions to one of the brightest and most creative festivals around!"

Artists, architects, theatre-makers, performance groups and creators of all sorts, with an appetite for what makes a festival really sing, are being invited to submit their most amazing designs, and up to 10 grants (between £400 and £2000) are being offered for this year's festival. Entrants can turn a caravan (or something with wheels that can come and go) into something implausibly wonderful, and Latitude will give it a home from home, in the brand-new Trailer Park area.

Trailer Park will become Latitude's moment of madness, a haven of hilarious caravans, utilitarian mobile homes that have undergone surgery, vans re-functioned and campers converted. Collectively, they will create a metropolis of tiny venues, interactive cultural outposts, fun-clinics and oddball theatres.

Will added "Festivals are such explosions of fun and creativity, a place where for a few days we can let our hair down and go wild, a place where the extraordinary eccentric and unique almost become normal! The combination of creativity, caravans and festivals is a winner. I'm always astounded by the passion with which folk adapt and embellish their caravans. There is a huge community that is wild about these humble structures and this is a competition that celebrates this quirky world without limits."

Although Trailer Park is new to Latitude, in Ireland over 60 creators have been given grants to help them realise their wildest ideas for Electric Picnic festival, and the results have been mind-blowing.

Artistic Director, Roz Jellett said "In Trailer Park we really do set out to make people laugh. Projects that marry creativity, participation and style also come with an immense sense of mischief and creative abandon. This competition loves a good host, so if you have a gang of friends who like to make people around you have fun, simply think of how you might do that in the most unusual way, and either inside or in front of a room on wheels."

Previous submissions have included:
" To Let - A team of real estate agents trying to sell a decrepit caravan to passers-by
" Caravan Club Extravanaganza - the front side folds down to become a stage for bands
" Police check-point - a police van checking passers-by for inebriation
" Turbante - Brazilian collective who dress people in turbans
" Narnia - into a caravan and out the back is a snowy kingdom
" Tow Ho Ho - a caravan full of Christmas cheer, carols, and drunk Santa
" Trailer Tower - a viewing platform in a caravan that is craned into the sky
" Caravagina - a rebirthing experience
" Redneck Wedding - a mobile home with a confederate flag outside and an extended family within
" Lord Ganesh's Larder - A regular delivery van given the vibrant Calcutta bus makeover, including an elephant carriage on the roof.
" Terrible Terry's Jail - A caravan with jails bars on the windows for misbehaving festival goers, who then have to find the escape plan.
" Gangsta Granny - A collection of senior ladies knitting everything that moves and serving tea to a hip-hop soundtrack.
" Seagull's Nest - seagulls scavenge the nearby neighbourhood for debris to bring back to their giant nest (including a broken caravan).
" Mad De-Programming Machine - a scientific experiment using submarine parts, wires and colanders to give your brains a fresh start.

The deadline for entries is 30th March. All entries should be submitted online here and any further questions should be submitted to trailerparkcaravanchallenge@gmail.com

This year's Latitude has George Ezra; Snow Patrol; Lana Del Rey; Underworld; Loyle Carner; Neneh Cherry; Sigrid; Tom Grennan; Cat Power; Khruangbin; Anna Calvi; Pale Waves; Baxter Dury; Walking On Cars; and more, with more to be announced. For the details as available please see the line-up page.

Weekend and day tickets are on sale, priced as follows:-
adult weekend with camping: £202.50
teen weekend with camping: £137.50
child weekend with camping: £15
adult day: £77.50
child day: £10

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