大象传媒

The band have been making the most of their chance to air their songs to thousands of music fans at one of the country's biggest festivals.

"It was fantastic," said Cerian Hutchings, who plays the keyboards, violin and percussion. "I can't believe how many people were there watching us."

Captivating costumes

As usual the band - with a line-up of Lisa Horton, Jan Robertson, Iain Ross, Matt Hutchings and Charlene Katuwawala for the Latitude performance - were determined to make their performance as eye-catching as possible with some spectacular outfits.

"We had blue and gold reversible capes, face-paints, golden balloons which spelt out Bearsuit - it was amazing, a magical spectacular," said Jan Robertson, who plays the flute, keyboards, guitar and bass.

Bearsuit performed on the festival's opening day, Friday, 18 July, 2008 on the 大象传媒 Introducing/Lake Stage, curated by Radio 1's Huw Stephens.

The 大象传媒 Introducing presenter seems to be carrying on the legacy of the station's legendary broadcaster John Peel who championed the band.

Texas disappointment

Bearsuit's Jan and Iain saw Huw in Texas at the start of the year, and think a stroke of bad luck prompted his Latitude invite.

"We met up with Huw Stephens when we went to the South By Southwest Festival when we went to try and play it," said Jan.

"We had a little bit of a problem with immigration and only me and Iain got through, so we met up with Huw and had a little chat and I think that's why we got to play Latitude because he felt sorry for us," added Jan.

The rest of the band didn't get past immigration as their work visas didn't come through in time.

However, Bearsuit, who are touring America for two weeks in October, are hoping for better luck on their forthcoming US jaunt to promote their album, OH:IO, which was released in the country in March.

"This time we've applied for our visas in plenty of time, so fingers crossed," said Jan.

The appearance at Latitude was also memorable for the band due to the unusual heckles from the crowd.

"We had people shouting out Norwich landmarks at us, like ANGLIA SQUARE!, which was all quite bizarre but made us feel at home," said Cerian.