Kendal Calling 2024

Lowther Deer Park, Cumbria. Friday/Sunday 02/04-August-2024.

Despite the name “Kendal Calling” it is not held at Kendal. Apparently it was for the first few years but then grew too big for the space and so relocated to the Lowther estate near Penrith.

I was expecting something similar to Cropredy or Solfest. It was, indeed, similar to those in many respects: lots of people in a field with several stages and food and drink stalls but this is on a massive scale by comparison. 

The capacity is 40,000 people which temporarily makes it the third largest town in Cumbria (Carlisle 108,274; Barrow-in-Furness 55,251 [Demographics of Cumbria]). It was so extensive and crowded that it was much harder to meander between stages and catch bits of multiple acts, it was like several separate festivals all spliced together.

A couple of people had commented that it was very much for the young folk, but I did see a number of oldies and people with young children. The latter presumably have been coming to the festival for years, have since produced children but continue coming to the festival. We saw a large number of trolleys used for transporting tents and children to and fro.

Friday 02. Four of us went together, us and the Wrights. Unfortunately I had an urgent dental appointment that afternoon so the three of them decided to walk there (about 6 miles) and I joined them later with the car. 

After the walk, Mary was happy to sit down in one place, opposite the main stage, for most of the day and just wander around to explore during the breaks between acts. We caught a couple of tunes by Dead Letter and enjoyed The Snuts, CMAT, Keane and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. 

CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) was amazing. Great voice, really high energy, amazing stage presence and really knew how to work the crowd. One to watch out for.

The Snuts are a Scottish indie rock band who put on an enjoyable show.

The crowd loved Keane and even though I only recognised the hit single “Somewhere Only We Know” I still enjoyed it. Meanwhile the people around me were singing along with every track, they knew all the words.

The same was true with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Not a band we listen to but the audience knew every word of every song. My criteria for assessing a band whose music I am not familiar with is how different each song sounds from the last. Are they writing new melodies and playing different tempi, different instrumentation. That is a good indicator of their skill and artistry. Noel's set fitted that bill.

At Solfest three years ago we spent ages wandering about in the dark trying to find our car. Aiming to learn from our mistake, I dropped a What3Words pin as I parked the car with the plan of using that to navigate our way back to it in the dark at the end.

Fine in theory - we tried to use the What3Words pin and Google Maps to navigate our way back to the car. Unfortunately, Google only knows about tarmac roads and not gravel tracks. So we missed our turn and went in a big loop, stumbling around in the dark, until we finally tracked down the car. It took us a good hour of walking including the last bit through wet grass and nettles. No fun when you are tired and just want to get back to your own bed.

Lessons learned: In addition to w3w make a visual note of tracks and waypoints by looking backwards at junctions, turns and recognisable landmarks. That worked well the next night.

Saturday 03. We were less static than Friday, visiting other stages to hear different bands. 

This was our viewing order for the day. 

• Melanie Baker 
• Delagrave 
• Beatles Dub Club 
• Heather Small (ex M People)
• Tors 
• Molotov Jukebox
• Kate Nash
• Sugababes. I stayed to watch them while Mary went off to see the Lightning Seeds

We have seen local band Delagrave several times and it’s nice to see them appearing here which has got to be good for raising their profile.

Beatles Dub Club worked their way through large amounts of Beatles back catalogue with a high energy performance. Very nostalgic and good fun.

Heather Small was full of energy, bouncing about the stage on high heels and in excellent voice. One of our party was amazed at her energy when they realised that she was 59 years old and four years older than him!

Kate Nash was good, a somewhat autobiographical singer-songwriter with an upbeat pop sound - a bit like Lily Allen.

The Sugababes were in fine voice and also did a lot of dancing around the stage. Now I did know their greatest hits.

We decided not to stay to the very end and left before The Streets who we’d never heard of. We met up after Sugababes / Lightening Seeds and were led through the fantastic Woodlands area by the Wrights. 

This tree root display was clearly inspired by Avatar's Tree of Souls.

We managed to successfully navigate our way back to the car and were back in Penrith in time for an entirely unnecessary beer in Fell Penrith - much tastier than most of the beers on offer at the festival. 

Sunday 04. We bagged a decent spot at the main stage and stayed there for most of the day. Great bunch of artists, mostly unfamiliar to us so lots to add to our playlists. We only missed a couple whilst away getting beer and / or food. 

We enjoyed Red Rum Club, Royal Otis and Pale Waves then went for a wander and came across a very lively and enjoyable set by Youth Sector in the Woodlands. Then back to the main stage for The Reytons who were very loud so sounded great at the back while we ate. 

We learned very late on the there was a fancy dress theme and it was The Sea. That morning I passed the local toy shop which surprisingly was open on a Sunday. I popped in and bought a small plastic shark which I stapled to my baseball cap and I got several compliments. Mary found a suitably stripy sailor t-shirt at home and bought a cap from the Hospices at Home charity ladies to complete the ensemble.

Pale Waves played a fine set with a lead female singer, Heather Baron-Gracie. Wikipedia tells me they are "often described as 80s-inspired indie rock or synth-pop; their second and third albums, however, owe more to the pop-punk genre".

The Reytons were an indie rock band but I found it disconcerting that every single sentence the front man uttered included the word “f*****g”. Call me old fashioned but I found it unnecessary.

By now we were bored of the beers on offer so bought some wine!

Although he was a headine act Paolo Nutini was almost unknown to us. I didn't recognise any of the songs which must have included some hits single. Still he passed the "every song distinct" test and we very much enjoyed his set.

There was a spectacular firework display at the end. Kudos to Sarah who took these photos  

Back to the car and a slow crawl off the festival site as the bulk of the festival goers all left at once.

Mary learned a second lesson: Consider your footwear very carefully. Do NOT under any circumstances make a very last minute decision to change to some wellies that you have not worn for at least 20 years! She ended up with blisters on her toes.

After the festival, our homework is to listen again to all the bands that made an impression and expand our listening horizon.