AceShowbiz - The Chemical Brothers will find returning to the stage "emotional."

The "Setting Sun" hitmakers - comprising of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons - will headline Latitude Festival later this month (July 2021) and wouldn't be surprised if performing for a full-capacity crowd for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit reduces them to tears.

"It will be emotional. I could still be blubbing by the encore," Tom said during an interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine.

The stars were in final rehearsals for a number of global gigs last year when everything was abruptly canceled. "The timing couldn't have been worse," Tom recalled.

The 50-year-old musician is frustrated that sport has been able to largely go back to normal with crowds in attendance while the music scene has floundered.

"To see fans back at football matches while festivals are forced to cancel for a second year is inexplicable to me," he said. "Why is one more important than the other? It's the same shared experience that's fundamental to us all."

"Clubland had already been hollowed out pre-pandemic. I don't want to bang on about the good old days, but clubbing was how you found your tribe. It's still vital to young lives, an experience you don't get through a screen."

"What's weird is that we have a generation of people in powerful positions who grew up seeing the seismic shift in arts and industry that came from club culture. They went to festivals. Some of them still do. But ask them to recognize either in a formal way, as they do in other countries, and there's silence."