Kendal Calling Festival 2010

Kendal Calling 2010 was a coming of age for the small Cumbrian festival. On its 5th birthday, hosted in the beautiful surroundings of the Lowther Deer Park just south of Penrith, the festival that started with 900 fans watching Pendulum in 2006 had grown into a pilgrimage for 8,000 festival-goers from across the country.

The first thing you notice about Kendal Calling is how friendly everyone is, from the moment newcomers are cuffed with their wristbands you are made to feel welcome and looked after. The toilets were always clean, the St John Ambulance bicycle crews always on hand, and no queues at the bar.

This year saw a beer festival held in the arena's very own Holy Quail Pub with a selection of locally brewed ales on tap and just next door Croissant Neuf had set up their completely solar powered Glastonbury tent.

Friday is always a shorter day than the rest, and having driven up later than expected I arrived to the Brixton beats of Stereo MCs. Friday was the dance party night of the festival, with Dub Pistols and Chiddy Bang having already played the main stage and Calvin Harris to follow.

Kendal Calling has a decent pedigree when it comes to the dance spectrum of the music scene and with the Glow tent thumping it’s way into the 3am territory there is plenty of time to party after the main stage has shut it’s lights off. DJ Yoda played his signature hundred-tracks-in-one set combining every music genre you could think of. The Glow stage finished the night off with Electro / Breakbeat combo Elite Force followed by Plump DJs.

The largest crowd of the weekend belonged to Calvin Harris, his field-filling electro-pop tracks Acceptable In The 80s and Ready For The Weekend getting the reasonably young audience dancing enthusiastically and the atmosphere was buzzing for the rest of the weekend.

For those looking for a non-dance filled Friday night the Calling Out stage provided a safehouse with some energetically brutal power provided by Leeds band Pulled Apart By Horses, with their highlight song Back To The Fuck Yeah a standout track. The much more subtle Wave Machines followed, with an eclectic mix of tracks spanning Elbow/Eels like tracks to more 80s pop tunes, and finishing the night with General Fiasco who I managed to miss due to “needing to decide which of the local ale’s I’d be sticking to for the rest of the weekend while catching First Aid Kit” - It was the Windemere Pale in the end.

One criticism is the beverage pricing policy, although the organisers have no control over the price of food, a can of lager was £3.50. This meant a large proportion of the crowd were sat in the campsite drinking the same cans for 80p from a local supermarket for the first half of each day and missing lots of the smaller bands that crave the exposure. With a sensible policy of allowing some alcohol into the site I think the festival would have benefited.

Saturday arrived and the fantastic tradition of fancy dress was upheld in great gusto. There was an epedemic of Smurfs and Where’s Wally outfits, but the general effort put in was fantastic and added a huge amount to the second day.

New York Tourists kicked off the day to a surprisingly quiet main stage, probably due to a combination of cheaper in-tent drinks at the campsite and hangovers from the previous evening kicking in. At midday there were plenty still asleep, but they missed out on a lovely pint of well kept local ale sat in the sun listening to Yields.

The Kaylied stage (In the Croissant Neuf tent) hosted much of the folk / country for the weekend and last year boasted Frank Turner and Mumford & Sons on the lineup, so up and coming artists are usually in amongst this crowd. Jesca Hoop stood out from the rest as a talented musician with varied, beautiful songs the audience lapped up.

Probably the strongest day on the Main Stage saw OkGo whip the crowd into a frenzy with Get Over It accompanied by ticker tape cannons, followed by The Futureheads who are now festival veterans and stormed through their set. Having seen The Futureheads a few times the “split the crowd in half for the Hounds Of Love backing singing” bit is starting to wear thin for me, but it got the crowd going.

Local boys Wild Beasts were greeted by the first proper rain shower of the festival, but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the home-crowd fans who built in size over the set. Although they don’t have an awful lot of material yet the set sounded fantastic and I’d love to see them again in a smaller venue.

Doves need no introduction and showed their experience with masses of hits, spot on sound and an assurance that years of touring brings. The combination of Wild Beasts and Doves had calmed the crowd down somewhat, but yet again the Glow tent turned up the bass with Erol Alkan, Eskimo Twins and York’s own Evil Nine.

By Sunday the majority of people had changed out of their fancy dress, but there was still quite a bit knocking around (I think, it’s hard to tell sometimes). A small highlight for me was Stan's Left Foot doing what sounded like Gogol Bordello singing Killing In The Name Of, which re-ignited the fun for the final day.

Kendal Calling also has an array of other stages hosting comedy, poetry, Q&A sessions and other acts, one of the busiest of these was Howard Marks recounting stories from his drug smuggling past.

The Calling Out stage probably provided the most exciting lineup for the evening with Chickenhawk, These New Puritans and DANANANANAYKROYD showing that even the smaller festivals can pull in great acts across multiple stages.

Badly Drawn Boy pulled in the crowds for the main stage and took us through a best-of set spanning his incredible career with songs from About A Boy, Hour Of The Bewilderbeast right up to current tracks.

I missed British Sea Power, another (mainly) local band, but will luckily get my chance next week at Standon Calling, but did enjoy the final main stage act of the weekend, The Coral, although it felt lacking in any scouse banter after the crowd interaction of The Zutons in 2009.

Kendal Calling appeals to young and old, families, groups and couples. It’s a lovely weekend in a stunning location with great acts and one of the safest and relaxed festival atmospheres I’ve experienced. Yet again Kendal Calling is the highlight festival of my year.

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