Kendal Calling’s Andy Smith toasts 2024 sellout

From the Fields boss Andy Smith has spoken to IQ about how Kendal Calling bucked the trend in the UK festival market this summer.

The 2024 scene has been beset by dozens of cancellations – with Gloucester’s Witcombe Festival becoming the latest to fall by the wayside this week.

Yet the 40,000-cap Kendal Calling, which took place from 1-4 August, not only continued a sellout streak that stretches back almost two decades, it was even given a rare break by the weather gods.

“I think it was the first Kendall Calling where it’s never rained, at least since the first one,” chuckles Smith. “We had a nautical theme, which I’d always wanted to do but thought it might be a bit too on the nose, but it was absolutely perfect. It came together in every way. The audience was fantastic, the music was marvellous and the site build was the smoothest ever.”

Held in Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District, the Cumbrian festival was headlined by Paul Heaton with special guest Rianne Downey, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Streets and Paolo Nutini. And despite concerns of a headliner shortage across the board this year, Smith suggests that booking top acts was no harder than usual.

“With 10 being the maximum difficulty, it’s always been an eight or a nine,” Smith tells IQ. “It’s always been very difficult, but I’m not seeing much change there. It was very good last year when we had relatively newer headliners [Blossoms and Royal Blood], but there are a lot of bands coming through the ranks at the moment. Watching The Lottery Winners at the weekend, I was thinking they should be headlining in a matter of years.”

“People have a lot of trust in it being a great weekend, come rain or shine, and we’re very fortunate that we lived up to that”

Acts such as Keane, Paul Heaton, Declan McKenna, Sugababes, The Reytons, The Snuts, Kate Nash, Feeder, CMAT, Heather Small, Pale Waves and Royel Otis were also on the bill, along with a unique DJ set by The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess and retired footballer Gary Neville. There was also a surprise VIP on site in the form of British boxing legend Tyson Fury.

“That was weird,” laughs Smith. “I was stood watching Noel Gallagher and someone said, ‘That’s Tyson Fury.’ And I was like, ‘Where? Oh, good lord, he’s bloody huge!’ He asked a few questions about the festival, and seemed to be having a lovely time.”

Smith also gave an update on the future of From the Fields’ 25,000-cap science and music event Bluedot in Cheshire, which took a fallow year in 2024 to allow the festival site to fully recover from the impact of adverse weather at last year’s event.

“We’ve got our first planning meeting on Monday, looking at next year,” he reveals. “It was a hole in our diaries this year – we very much missed it and look forward to its return. It is an absolutely great show, but it is a tough market out there at the moment.”

Referencing the wider problems facing festivals, such as escalating costs and the cost-of-living crisis, Smith is grateful for the loyalty shown by the Kendal Calling audience.

“People used to go to two or three or four festivals a year, and now they can’t afford it. They are still going to festivals, just not as many.” he notes. “We’ve been going for a very long time and word of mouth spreads. People have a lot of trust in it being a great weekend, come rain or shine, and we’re very fortunate that we lived up to that.”

“We only sold out two weeks before the show, but we knew for a long time that it was on the cards”

He continues: “This year, it was a relatively late sell out – we only sold out two weeks before the show, but we knew for a long time that it was on the cards, because we have strong data from previous years and it’s bizarre how consistent sales patterns can be. But as to when it sells out, we’re just happy that it does.”

Kendal Calling and Bluedot have been backed by festival giant Superstruct Entertainment since 2019 and 2022, respectively. US global investment firm KKR acquired Superstruct from Providence in June, but Smith says operations have been unaffected.

“It’s business as usual, all systems go,” he says. “They’re a brilliant team to work with.”

A ticket presale for Kendal Calling’s 20th year, which is scheduled for 31 July to 3 August 2025, takes place tomorrow (8 August), and Smith’s mind is already abuzz with possibilities of how to mark the occasion.

“We have got so many ideas, it’ll be hard to see what makes the cut,” he concludes. “We want to do this ginormous closing ceremony, or maybe an opening ceremony, but there are a few artists we have our eyes on and it’d be great to get some old faces back as well. We’ve had some fantastic acts over the years who have become in-house bands, or bands that people love and expect to see at the festival, so we’ll be inviting some some of those back.

“Other than that, it’ll just about steady progress, as it always is. It was a wonderful weekend, but there are still a few areas we look at and think, ‘We could change that around slightly and make that even better.’ We brought in three new stages this year, and they all seemed to work perfectly, which makes you look at older stages and think, ‘Could we relook at how we do that?’ So things are always changing.”
 

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