Kendal Calling at 20: The story so far
Kendal Calling co-founders Ben Robinson and Andy Smith have celebrated the festival’s journey so far after unveiling the lineup for its 20th birthday next summer.
Courteeners, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and Kaiser Chiefs will top the bill at Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District from 31 July to 3 August 2025.
Tickets for the 40,000-cap UK event, which has been backed by Superstruct Entertainment since 2019, went on sale in August and have been snapped up at record speed.
“We’ve sold over three quarters of our tickets for next year, so we better make sure it’s the best one yet,” Smith tells IQ.
More than 80 acts have been announced in total, also including The Last Dinner Party, Travis, Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Skindred, Maximo Park, The Lottery Winners, Scouting for Girls, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jason Manford, The K’s, Reverend & The Makers, The Pigeon Detectives, Daniel Bedingfield, Pixie Lott, Tim Burgess and Inspiral Carpets.
“I’ve literally not been mentioning who we’ve got next year, because I feel it’s so special that if I say it too many times, it might not happen,” says Robinson.
“We’re probably the only festival in the world who are booking for 2035”
Here, the duo reflect on the history of Kendal Calling, booking Snoop Dogg and why they’ve already started planning the festival’s 30th anniversary…
The origins of the event…
Ben Robinson: “I started putting on a lot of gigs around Cumbria after I came back from university. There wasn’t much of a music scene to be spoken of, but there were a few good bands so I started promoting little shows in pubs and things like that. Through that process, I met Andy Smith, who was doing something similar over the hill. The two of us identified that there were no venues big enough to put some cool shows in, and we thought we would maybe do something outdoors. I think for the first five years, it was just, ‘Can we get through this year?'”
Andy Smith: “We didn’t want to jinx it, so you just think one year ahead at a time and never had any ambitions to grow to the size we are now because even thinking about such a thing would be too dangerous. So you just think, ‘How could we improve last year and make it better?’ The first year was 900-capacity and the entire tent was probably the size of our catering tent these days. We’ve actually got a contract for an artist to play our 30th anniversary in 2035. So while I say we’ve only looked one year ahead, that one’s been in the bag for a while now. We’re probably the only festival in the world who are booking for 2035.”
Breakthrough years…
BR: “2008 was quite a key year for a few reasons. Before that, it was very much a two-day ticket: one more electronic, one more indie. But then in 2008, we could only get Dizzee Rascal on the Friday so we decided to make it a three-day event and 4,000-cap. We were a little bit caught out about how many people then came and camped, so it really became a festival, rather than a couple of day events.”
AS: “BBC Radio 1 did some fantastic advertisement for us, because Dizzee Rascal was #1 in the charts at the time and they spent the entire week talking about Kendal Calling and how mad it was that Dizzee was playing in Ibiza the nights before and after, and there was no way he was going to make the show. So I think we sold an awful lot of tickets to people who didn’t live in Kendal that time, and that’s the first time it kind of broke the boundaries of the town.”
BR: “I would say it’s a regional festival with a national reputation. It’s definitely still got its heart embedded in the North West, but it does feel like it’s local to the majority of people in the north now. We moved up to Lowther Deer Park, 2009, and that’s been the home of the festival ever since. That was the first time we had an outdoor stage, because the main stage had previously been tented.”
“We’ve missed the boat a few times – could’ve booked Ed Sheeran, didn’t…”
Going international…
AS: “I think Blondie [in 2011] were the first international act we’d had. There was a lot of trust shown there from Steve Strange to offer the act to us, and the audience was blown away. That was surreal – I’ve grown up listening to Blondie all my life, so that was a heck of a year for us.”
BR: “On our 10th birthday, we had Snoop Dogg perform, which was huge – a little bit similar to Dizzee Rascal in that nobody really knew if he was going to make it. The night before Snoop Dogg was going to play, he was arrested walking through an Italian airport because he had about €400,000 in duffle bags. That was in all the news reports as we were going to bed, and our mates were going ‘Are you sure if he’s going to make it tomorrow?’ He was feeding in that he was on his way, but it was getting quite close and we had a capacity crowd waiting at the main stage. As he was coming onto the site, his tour bus was viewable by the audience, driving to the back of the stage and there was this incredible cheer. He literally walked straight off the tour bus and onto the stage.”
AS: “Someone was there holding a microphone next to the tour bus when the doors opened and he just grabbed the microphone, strode onto the stage and played an absolutely amazing set. I’ve never seen such professionalism – he knows what he’s doing! We both grew up in small villages, so that informed our programming policy of having something for everybody. You want to get the whole village out having a great time and that means booking Snoop Dogg, but it also means booking the Beach Boys, Elbow and Kaiser Chiefs. That’s where we’re now going with the expansion of the arts offering as well, so it’s not just going to be a wonderful festival for music, it’s going to be a wonderful festival for everything.”
Surprise successes…
AS: “[Former football player turned pundit] Gary Neville was this year, and I don’t think we’ve ever had so much press.”
BR: “He was signing a few shirts as he was DJing. They’d been thrown onto the stage and I thought loads of people must’ve brought an extra shirt with them to be signed. But then I looked all across the front row and nobody had a shirt on – they were stripping the shirts off their backs to throw at this guy. It was quite the moment.”
AS: “We booked The 1975 when nobody had heard of them, and then as it got closer to the event, you’re saying, ‘Good lord, there’s going to be a issue here; we’re going to have to move them to a different stage.’ But they wouldn’t move to a different stage, so we had to put in various provisions to make sure the tent didn’t overcrowd. That was a big hoo-ha, but then there were other ones, like Mumford & Sons. I listened to [their 2009 debut album Sigh No More] and thought, ‘These guys are going to be superstars,’ and then there were about 50 people in the tent. You watch them play the entirety of Sigh No More to 50 people thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve got that wrong.’ And then obviously [months later], whoosh! We’ve missed the boat a few times – could’ve booked Ed Sheeran, didn’t…”
BR: “The most wonderful thing I find about this festival now is that every single year there will be a collection of artists that emerge. A band like the Lottery Winners have just had their moment and just become this phenomenon within the show.”
AS: “They played 11 years in a row – and your birthday party as well.”
“Production costs went up 25-30% across the board. If you’d have told me that was going to happen before Covid, I’d have told you there wouldn’t be any festivals left”
Challenges…
AS: “When you get to a certain size, every year you’re going to be facing issues one way or another. Only a few years ago, 2019 perhaps, there was a storm and we had to pause music on the main stage for the first time ever. Then on the Sunday, a truck driver hit a bridge on the M6 northbound and our audience was stuck in traffic for about six hours. We had an entire orchestra – Hacienda Classical, the headliners of the show – sat in that traffic jam. But apart from that little blip of having to shut the arena for an hour, the show went ahead and everybody had a fantastic time.”
BR: “I think the challenges are broadly similar to other shows. After Covid, production costs went up 25-30% across the board. If you’d have told me that was going to happen before Covid, I’d have told you there wouldn’t be any festivals left. Fortunately, we’ve managed to work well with our production teams to mitigate those costs, and with our audience to let them understand the ticket price has gone up a bit, but the value for money has gone up with it. You’ve got to stand out as a festival: people have less money at this point in time, so we’ve put everything we can into making the show special on every level.”
Proudest moments…
BR: “The atmosphere that we’ve created. There’s a certain Kendal Calling vibe and a magic. When you walk through those fields, people are having a lot of fun; they’re drinking a lot of beer, but there’s never a fight and there’s never aggravation. They are unapologetically animated, loud and lairy, but in the most wonderful way. They’re just there for fun times and banter, and I take a lot of pride in that. There are a lot of shows across the country that have more money to spend on certain things, or be hyped in different ways, but when I go there, I don’t find the same sense of camaraderie and fun that I find at Kendal Calling.”
AS: “That’s what really makes it special – Cumbrians know how to party.”
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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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Top promoters tackle the new headliner debate
Leading UK promoters have spoken out on the live industry’s success rate at developing fresh stadium and festival headliners.
The new headliner question has been a perennial debate in the touring business over the past decade, amid claims of an over-reliance on heritage artists. Yet despite legends including Elton John, KISS, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and the Eagles all retiring from the road, the pipeline appears to be as healthy as it has been in decades.
The summer of 2023 has witnessed open air spectaculars by an abundance of stars still in their 20s and early 30s such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Burna Boy, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Wizkid, The Weeknd, Blackpink, Sam Fender and Bad Bunny, and AEG’s European Festivals chief Jim King is buoyed by the state of play.
“It’s a very interesting question because it comes up a lot,” he tells IQ. “But as I remind everybody: some of the biggest shows this year have been with young, contemporary artists, or certainly will be in the next 12 months.”
Blockbuster tours by Taylor Swift ($300.8 million), Harry Styles ($124m) and Ed Sheeran ($105.3m) all hit the nine-figure mark in H1 2023, with Swift’s Eras Tour on target to become the first concert tour in history to net more than US$1 billion, and Styles recently wrapped Love On Tour generating close to $600m overall.
“Harry Styles could probably still be playing Wembley now if they had the availability”
Only this week, meanwhile, it was announced that The Weeknd pulled in over 1.6 million fans to the European leg of his After Hours Til Dawn Tour. The Canadian shattered Wembley Stadium’s record for sales with a traditional concert set up with the stage at one end with 87,000 tickets sold, having also set a new attendance record for London Stadium after drawing 160,000 fans over two nights in July.
In Milan, the 33-year-old sold over 159,000 tickets, making him the first artist to sell out two nights at Ippodromo La Maura, with his shows in Paris marking the biggest sales for Stade de France this year, totalling to 151,000 across the two dates. His shows in Nice, France sold 70,000 tickets across two shows – the highest in the city’s history.
“We talk our supply chain of new headliners down so often, with other artists sadly no longer with us or retiring,” says King. “But if you look at this great run of stadium shows, there has been no bigger act in London this summer than The Weeknd, with two London Stadiums and a Wembley Stadium.
“Harry Styles could probably still be playing Wembley now if they had the availability. His quality as an artist is unquestionable, not just in terms of his music, but his live performances. Taylor Swift will set records next year, no doubt, as she continues to in North America, and Ed Sheeran continues to do so as well – and those are just the easy ones off the top of your head.”
King oversees the 65,000-cap BST Hyde Park in London, which this year featured seasoned headliners Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Billy Joel, Pink and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, plus contemporary superstars Blackpink and Lana Del Rey.
“Stadium business in the UK has never been stronger”
“The process of developing artists to that level has clearly changed since the 1970s, but most of the cultural industries have changed in some ways since then as well,” he adds. “I don’t feel any lack of optimism about the future – Lana Del Rey could have sold 100,000 tickets in London this summer if she’d have wanted to, such is the love and appreciation of where she is in her career. So I think the industry is in far better shape than people say.
“Stadium business in the UK has never been stronger. Trying to get avails for stadiums in the UK at the moment is beyond a challenge, and we know from The O2 and our other venues that live music is extremely strong – and that’s because of the quality of the artists. When quality sits in place, demand will follow.”
This weekend’s Reading & Leeds Festival (cap. 90,000 & 75,000, respectively) will be headlined by British artists Sam Fender, Foals and The 1975 (subbing for Lewis Capaldi), as well as Billie Eilish, The Killers and Imagine Dragons from the US, and Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn is confident the UK is still developing enough headline talent in relation to its American counterparts.
“Two out of the three Glastonbury headliners [Elton John/Arctic Monkeys] were UK acts, three out of six at Reading and Leeds are UK acts, three out of the three at Latitude [Pulp/Paolo Nutini/George Ezra] were UK acts, three out of the three at Wilderness [Chemical Brothers/Fatboy Slim] were UK acts, well one’s French albeit UK-based [Christine & The Queens],” Benn tells Music Week.
“If you look across festivals as a whole, there are more UK headliners than US headliners. Wireless [Playboy Carti/Travis Scott/D-Block Europe] has a greater propensity of US artists than UK artists because of the nature of the music. But if I was to look across all of the festival headline positions, the UK is very much the strongest generator of headliners.”
“There’s a fresh pipeline of talent coming through, which is needed”
Superstruct-backed UK festival promoter From the Fields booked Nile Rodgers & Chic, Kasabian, Blossoms and Royal Blood to headline its 40,000-cap Kendal Calling and Roisin Murphy, Pavement and Grace Jones for the 25,000-cap Bluedot.
“I’ve always struggled finding the headliners,” company MD and co-founder Andy Smith tells IQ. “I’ve always been the boy who cried wolf thinking that this is the year we won’t be able to find anyone. I remember back in 2011, the festival had completely sold out and we couldn’t find a Sunday night headliner. and that was two months of sheer panic, but eventually Alex Hardee came through and we got Calvin Harris so it worked out in the end. But it’s always difficult. If it wasn’t difficult, everyone would be doing it, but we always come through.
“I’d say it’s as difficult as it’s ever been. But this year, we had one of our strongest, most varied bills and it’s great to see newer acts taking our headline slot. Blossoms have played a number of times at the festival, but this was their first time on the main stage and they were headlining it and they did a great job. Royal Blood, again, had never played at Kendal before. So there’s a fresh pipeline of talent coming through, which is needed.”
Speaking earlier this year, Live Nation boss Michael Rapino praised the emergence of younger headliners such as Bad Bunny, Karol G, Rosalia, Blackpink, BTS and Billie Eilish.
“Six of the top 10 artists were younger artists,” he said. “There’s just a host of great new talent every year coming up, filling the pipe. We didn’t know Luke Combs was going to be selling stadiums out this year, two years ago. We had no idea Bad Bunny was going to be the largest selling artist last year.
“We’re also seeing this encouraging new supply strategy where for many years, it was all about US or UK-based artists that filled the charts and fill the stadium and most other talent was domestic… Now, you can see artists coming from Latin America and Korea and becoming global superstars.”
The debate will take centre stage at this year’s International Festival Forum (IFF) as part of the Headliners: The Winner Takes it All panel from 10am on Thursday 28 September, which will be chaired by WME agent Andy Duggan. Click here for more details.
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From the Fields’ Andy Smith breaks down ’23 season
From the Fields co-founder and MD Andy Smith has reflected on the mixed fortunes of the UK promoter’s Kendal Calling and Bluedot festivals this summer in a new interview with IQ.
Held in Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District from 27-30 July, the 40,000-cap Kendal Calling sold out for the 17th successive year, headlined by Nile Rodgers & Chic, Kasabian, Blossoms and Royal Blood.
“It’s been a phenomenal year,” Smith tells IQ. “It’s been a hard year, but it’s definitely been worth it.”
The goodwill generated from this year’s festival has helped it break its first-day sales record for the second successive year, with more than 40% of tickets for next year’s edition, set for 1-4 August 2024, snapped up yesterday.
“We’ve got a very eager and passionate audience,” Smith tells IQ. “People love the festival – it’s as simple as that. We’ve got a very strong, loyal audience who come every year and they know that it sells out every year – 17 years in a row – so they just want to know that they have a ticket and then not think about it again until we announce the line-up, at which point they get all excited again. I wish I was that organised!”
In another positive development, the festival saw a greater uptake for its Thursday opening night attractions this year, which helped ease traffic issues over the weekend.
“It’s normally a three-day camping ticket with the addition of a Thursday night for traffic measures, trying to reduce the amount of cars arriving at once,” explains Smith. “With Scouting For Girls and Chic & Nile Rodgers, we had about 60% of the audience coming in early, which resolved the traffic issues, so that was a great success.”
“Every year we seem to have record amounts of rainfall, and this July is no exception with it being 40% above the norm”
The site’s infrastructure also held up well against the expected weather challenges – with the help of some novel tactics from organisers.
“Every year we seem to have record amounts of rainfall, and this July is no exception with it being 40% above the norm,” says Smith. “It normally turns into quite a mud bath, but we managed to avoid that this year despite having our fair share of rain.
“One of the things we did, which we’d never done before, is we didn’t cut the grass,” he continues. “People turned up and thought we were mad because the grass was up to their knees in places, but there was a theory behind it and it was twofold. Firstly, for the immediate enjoyment of the customers – once you’ve had 10,000 people walk across any high land, it isn’t knee-high anymore and you end up with a carpet below you. That meant that, even after 10 hours of rain on Saturday night, the fields were green and they still were 12 hours later.
“Secondly, from a sustainability [perspective], when you mow 2,000 acres of grass, you turn it all into silage, which goes straight to the cows and into the atmosphere as methane, which is no good. But when you trample it into the ground, it stays there. It’s like a carbon sink, so that was very good for our sustainability policies and very good for the environment and for customers.”
From the Fields’ 25,000-cap science and music event Bluedot was not so lucky in its battle against the elements, however. Taking place at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, between 20-23 July with artists including Pavement, Roisin Murphy, Leftfield and Max Richter. But it was forced to cancel Sunday day tickets due to extreme weather conditions after an “unprecedented amount of rainfall” rendered the day ticket holder car park, pick-up and drop-off point and entrances “impassable”.
“It was a shame we had to refund day ticket holders on the Sunday, but it just wouldn’t have been fair to drag them in and out of the car park”
“That a was a very tricky production,” concedes Smith. “We had more rain there than we’ve ever had before, but we had an audience that was prepared for it: they know to wear cagoules, they know to wear the right shoes and they know to bring some spares. With certain shows, you get audiences who are more or less prepared and Bluedot’s 100% saw it coming.
“When we knew [adverse weather] was inevitable, we got an extra 1,500m of trackway down – I think they got 130 tons of wood chip from our local [supplier] – and a number of other measures that were put out throughout the weekend, which ensured the show could go on. Considering the amount of rain, it was very impressive work by the site crew and by the management to keep it going.
“It was a shame we had to refund day ticket holders on the Sunday, but it just wouldn’t have been fair to drag them in and out of the car park. But for everybody on site, it’s strange – the audience seems to come together a lot more in times of adversity. So whilst one may not have expected it to be so well received, looking at the socials afterwards, it seems to have been one of the best we’ve had yet, if not the best, which is just phenomenal.”
Returning to Kendal Calling’s Leave Nothing But Memories sustainability programme, From the Fields launched new game Flappy Tent to raise awareness of the impact of festival-goers leaving tents behind and commissioned local band The Lancashire Hotpots to write a song about the issue.
“Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better, and surveying Kendal Calling site on the Monday morning in 2019 was very depressing,” says Smith. “Then we had the two years off, and then last year pretty much everybody took their tents away. It went from being an uncountable mess down to about 284 tents.
“I was very worried this year, because it rained a lot. But by the initial count, it’s looking like we’ve done the same as last year, which I actually think is really good. Through all these initiatives, I think the message has got through.”
Kendal Calling and Bluedot have been backed by Superstruct Entertainment since 2019 and 2022, respectively.
“We’ve got support where we need it,” adds Smith. “We’ve always had great team but there’s that extra level that’s very refreshing, especially when you’re days into a festival and it’s quite tiring. It’s great to have somebody on the end of the phone who’s got a fresh mind and fresh pair of eyes. Nothing’s changed unless it’s been needed and we find their level of support so refreshing. It’s a wonderful partnership.”
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