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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Live entertainment powerhouse Superstruct Entertainment has acquired a majority stake in the UK festival Bluedot.

Touted as “four days of music, science and cosmic culture,” Bluedot has been held annually in July since 2016 at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England.

The 25,000-capacity event has previously played hosts to artists such as Kraftwerk, Chemical Brothers, Hot Chip, Prof Brian Cox, Helen Sharman, Richard Dawkins, Jean-Michel Jarre, New Order and Future Islands.

The 25,000-capacity event has previously played hosts to artists such as Kraftwerk, Chemical Brothers and Hot Chip

The festival was founded by Ben Robinson, director of music festival agency From the Fields.

Robinson also co-founded Kendal Calling which was acquired by Superstruct from Global when the latter company divvied up its festival portfolio in 2019.

Providence Equity-backed Superstruct counts Sziget, Elrow, Parookaville, Wacken Open Air, Boardmasters, Sonar, Tuska and Zwarte Cross among its extensive portfolio of European festivals.

IQ has contacted Superstruct for a comment.

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Extreme weather tested Manchester, UK-based promoter From the Fields at Kendal Calling and Bluedot festivals this year, but did little to detract from the events’ best ticket sales to date.

Bluedot and Kendal Calling, From the Field’s biggest events, took place on two consecutive weekends from 18 to 21 and 25 to 28 July.

Both festivals were an “absolute success”, From the Fields co-director and Bluedot festival director Ben Robinson tells IQ. Bluedot, now in its fourth year, sold out in advance with a 30% increase in capacity.

“I think we’ve reached our happy size there at 16,000,” says Robinson, stating “we have no ambition to increase further.”

The longer-running, larger Kendal Calling also saw record sales, shifting 30,000 tickets and maintaining a capacity crowd throughout the weekend, despite “a lot of extreme weather”.

“Every stage went ahead as planned and the festival opened on time every day,” explains Robinson, commending the site crew on their efforts “against the elements”.

Taking place each year at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the gigantic Lovell Telescope, the fourth outing was a special one for Bluedot, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing.

“[The moon bounce] was the most unique thing I’ve ever seen at a festival and something you’d only find at Bluedot”

Audio clips recorded by headliners Kraftwerk, New Order and Hot Chip were used in a moon bounce, a radio communications technique that reflects waves from the moon back to an Earth-based receiver.

Robinson says the Bluedot moon bounce was “the most unique thing I’ve ever seen at a festival and something you’d only find at Bluedot”, which fuses music, science and technology.

The festival received a one-off license extension to 5 a.m. on the Saturday, allowing organisers to projection map onto the telescope and broadcast radio clips in real time with the original moon landing fifty years before.

According to Robinson, the “niche electronic programming” and music/ science combination – scientific speakers such as astronaut Helen Sharman and wildlife documentary presenter and biologist Liz Bonnin shared the main stage along with musical acts – attracts a “more specific audience” than Kendal Calling.

“Kendal Calling really feels like a broad cross section of the northwest of the UK,” says the From the Fields co-director. “There’s something for everyone.”

Orbital, Nile Rodgers and Chic, Manic Street Preachers, Doves, Courteeners and Tom Jones were among those playing the main stage over the weekend at Kendal Calling. Bristol punk rock band Idles were joined on stage by rapper Slowthai in a “truly unique” collaboration.

“There’s a real sense of community at both Bluedot and Kendal, and that makes people feel safe”

Despite their differences, both festivals provide a family-friendly environment, which Robinson puts down to “robust back of house services” and “good security and stewarding”.

“There’s a real sense of community at both Bluedot and Kendal, and that makes people feel safe,” says Robinson.

Both festivals have “landmark” years coming up in 2020, with Bluedot’s fifth anniversary and Kendal Calling’s 15th edition.

If this year’s Bluedot was about looking backwards at an iconic historical moment, says Robinson, next year’s festival will be a lot more future-facing. “The collaboration between music, science and tech gives ample opportunity to keep things fresh, as there are always new and exciting elements within those areas.”

Robinson describes the longevity of Kendal Calling as a “really bold achievement for us”, as the promoter confirms plans to continue the festival for the next ten years at least. Following “quite a muddy year”, the From the Fields co-director believes it is the right time to take a step back and look at “refreshing the site and design” in time for the festival’s anniversary.

Tickets for Bluedot 2020 are already available, with weekend camping priced at £168.75. Tickets for next year’s Kendal Calling go on sale on Friday at 10 am GMT.

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In Bohemian Rhapsody, the recent Queen biopic, we see Live Aid broadcast to 1.9 billion people. A moment in music history where the combined forces of music and events came together to try to change the world.

Fast-forward 30 years, and the power of music and events to bring people together and change their perspectives remains, and is at the heart of Energy Revolution, a charity set up by a collection of industry professionals with first-hand knowledge of running large-scale events in rural locations.

It started in 2015, when industry think tank Powerful Thinking laid out the environmental impacts of the UK festival industry and presented them at the COP21 climate change talks in Paris. The report was called the Show Must Go On (also, incidentally, the final track on Queen’s 1991 album Innuendo) and was a festival industry response to climate change, the current global issue facing the planet, and one that we all need to address in our lifetimes. The report showed that up to 80% of the average festival’s carbon footprint came from audience travel, which is where Energy Revolution’s mission was born.

There is no quick fix to the problem of climate change. Positive change must come from both practical action and perceptual shifts. Earlier this year, a single episode of the BBC’s Blue Planet caused a shift in perception so drastic that social media feeds are still brimming with ways to avoid single-use plastic. What an epic sign that change can come quickly when the message is clear and powerful.

Energy Revolution works with over 40 UK festivals, their audiences, suppliers, and artists, to help them understand the practical impacts of their travel choices. We help event organisers engage audiences and encourage them to consider more sustainable travel methods – and people are more engaged than ever.

In the words of Freddie, “the show must go on” – and for that to happen, we need to have a healthy planet for the show to be on

But let’s be honest: most festivals happen in fields or remote locations, and there is little chance that touring headline artists will fit their show production into the boot of a Tesla. In accepting this reality, Energy Revolution calculates impacts from travel by measuring and recording fossil fuel miles, calculating the associated CO2, and then balancing unavoidable emissions via donations that we then invest in projects that create clean renewable energy.

One hundred percent of all donations go to the projects, which have so far included reforestation, wind turbines, and community-owned solar and wind projects. So far, Energy Revolution has balanced over 7.8 million average car miles, that’s the equivalent of 2.5 million kg CO2e. It’s a bold start, but the real power in the project is the framework we’ve created that means all events, venues, gig-goers, crew, and artists can educate themselves on the true impacts of travel emissions, and actively balance that impact in a direct, practical and positive way.

Times change: Bohemian Rhapsody shows Bob Geldof expressing the plight of the African continent and rallying for £1 million (£2.2m in today’s climate). That’s around what one artist of equivalent stature might get for a single show today, and in the region of what Glastonbury donates each year to charity. Charity is also at a point where the perception change required is one that drops ‘Do They Know it’s Christmas?’ from its vocabulary, and instead empowers the communities they help.

Today, the greatest threat to humanity is climate change. We need to utilise the power of music and events to change perceptions and encourage practical action. We have reach through our audiences. Just as our industry has developed standards in health and safety, disability access and hearing protection, we also need to have sustainability on the tips of our tongues.

Kendal Calling, Boomtown, Download, Reading, Shambala, Bluedot are already on board, and I implore anyone reading this to get on-board, too, and to help spread the word. In the words of Freddie, “the show must go on” – and for that to happen, we need to have a healthy planet for the show to be on.

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