'I've opened my home to Latitude for 20 years - it's heaven'

What is it like to have your home taken over by thousands of music-loving strangers for an entire weekend every year?

Hektor Rous' family owns Henham Park near Southwold, Suffolk, which on Thursday will see tens of thousands of festivalgoers descend for the 20th year of Latitude Festival.

"It's heaven, it's fantastic, the whole place comes alive," said Rous, who lives on the 4,200-acre (1,699-hectare) estate with his wife Sarah and their three children.

Since 2006 the event has grown from a few thousand attendees to become one the UK's biggest festivals with more than 40,000 daily visitors.

"It showcases Suffolk, which is great, and the [organisers] have really put this area on the map and they have certainly put Henham Park on the map," Rous added.

Rous moved to Suffolk from Australia in 2004 to take over the running of the estate, which is owned by his father, Keith Rous, 6th Earl of Stradbroke.

"[Latitude] gets better and better every year, and I'm really proud we've been able to host it here for 20 years," added Rous, who said his dream headliner would have been David Bowie.

"I'm really excited about it - the whole family is pumped," he added.

Latitude Festival was founded by Melvin Benn two decades ago and is run by Festival Republic, where Benn is one of the directors.

The aim was to create something that was more than just a music festival, with the focus being as much on poets, writers and comedians as the bands on stage.

Ed Sheeran, Snow Patrol, Patti Smith, Wolf Alice, Tom Jones, and Florence and the Machine are some of the artists to have previously played at the festival.

This year's event will be headlined by David Byrne, Teddy Swims, and Lewis Capaldi, with Ross Noble, Sarah Pascoe, Lenny Henry and Jack Dee also featuring.

"I was brought up in Australia and we don't really have festivals in our kind of culture in the way we have it here, bizarrely enough," added Rous.

"So, I didn't fully understand it, but then that first year I sort of got a bit of a sense that this was something incredibly special.

"But I definitely couldn't guess that it would get to this kind of level and be such an iconic event in the Suffolk calendar."

Yet Rous said Latitude Festival is about far more than just the entertainment.

"You can find a quiet space, or you can find a loud space. You can dance till three in the morning, or you can go swimming in the lake at 10 in the morning," he said.

"You can go for a sauna up in the woods or drink a huge margarita at five in the afternoon – and I do all of those things to be fair.

"I just think it's a different vibe [to other festivals], because it's so Suffolk orientated and so family orientated. It's such a highlight and really excited for the next 20 years," he added.

Do you have a story suggestion for Suffolk? Contact us below.

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.