Get ready for the Latitude Festival. Here are just some of the uber cool people to go and see over the weekend of July 18 to 21.

1. Ben Folds and a Piano, Dance on the Waterfront, Saturday.

One of the major music influencers of our generation. Ben is simply spine-tingly brilliant having created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborative records with artists from Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor, to William Shatner.

2. Gomez, BBC Sounds Stage, Friday.

The Mercury Prize winning band burst on to the scene in the late Nineties with their debut album Bring It On and hits such as Whippin’ Piccadilly and Get Myself Arrested. In the States, Gomez have become bigger and bigger, with their two most recent albums, A New Tide (2009) and Whatever’s on Your Mind (2011), becoming the highest-charting records of their career.

3. Michelle Wolf, Comedy Arena, Friday.

Already billed as the future of comedy, New Yorker Michelle is fast becoming one of the most influential voices on the international stand-up circuit. She really hit the big time when she made international headlines as the much buzzed-about headliner of the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner.

4. Old Truck Theatre, The Cabaret Theatre, Saturday.

Southend duo writer Sadie Hasler and director Sarah Mayhew are now firm favourites at the arts festival following smash hits Pramkicker and Fran & Leni. This year they’re serving up a punchbowl of fruity female fun as they get up close and personal with some of the most iconic women in history including Katherine Hepburn and Bette Davis and Lady Gaga and Madonna.

5. Rubber, The Lake Stage, Friday.

Latitude has always been very courteous in supporting local talent and once again they have done us proud with one of the best bands in Colchester flying the flag for the local music scene, the recently signed to Creation three-piece.