KENDAL CALLING 2024 - SUNDAY // LOWTHER DEER PARK, PENRITH
Another year of kendal calling was another
great weekend of music
★★★★★ (5/5)
PALE WAVES PERFORMING AT KENDAL CALLING 2024
PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST
The final day, a much better sleep and we were ready to face the final day. I’d marked out the Thursday and Sunday as being the two days I thought I would enjoy most before going so was really looking forward to the day. Having packed up, taken down our tents and packed our cars we were free to concentrate on the day ahead before driving home that night.
More Himalayan Dumplings for breakfast (they were that good) set me up for the day.
I asked for interviews with Red Rum Club and Lauren Hibbard and waited to see if either happened.
Plan for the day was simple, start with the Kendal tradition on the Lancashire Hotpots, then Red Rum Club, Rats, Pale Waves, Glasvegas, Lauren Hibbard, Feeder, Venus Grrrls, The Lottery Winners and the Reytons before seeing if we had enough left in the tank to stay for Mr Nutini.
The Hotpots were as brilliant as ever, lots of dancing along, congas, arm swaying and some drum and bass, The perfect way to start a Sunday, my only complaint is they’ve stopped singing I fear Ikea, bring it back, also shop mobility Scooter!
In a happy and cheerful mood, it was time to move on, Red Rum Club were next, I saw them two years ago at Kendal and knew how good they were. They didn’t disappoint and played to a big crowd. Another excellent appearance at Kendal, some record company needs to sign them very soon!
I went back to the tent to interview Lauren Hibbard, while I was waiting to interview her, I ended up interviewing Sugarstone, a new band for me who I’d been talking to all weekend over a beer. They turned out to be great guys, even the guy from their local pub who has decided to adopt them. As thus was happening somehow Lauren wandered off, so I didn’t get to interview her.
Instead, I went to watch Rats, a top quality band from Liverpool who blew away their crowd, they were excellent, well worth going to see, one to add to your must see list.
The failure to interview Lauren was made up for though as I managed to get an interview with Red Rum Club over a game of swing ball. An experience I won’t forget in a hurry!
Back to the music, there was only one choice, Pale Waves on the main stage who didn’t disappoint. They are a band who continuously get better and better. They are brilliant musicians, have a fantastic lead singer and amazing songs. They blew the crowd away.
I then went on a run of seeing Glasvegas, who were excellent, the fugitive Lauren, who clearly knows how to get a crowd going and has some excellent songs, Feeder who blew me away with how good they were despite the gremlins in their equipment which delayed the start of their show and who were one of the highlights of the weekend, the Venus Grrrls who were way too good to be on the Woodlands stage and perennial Kendal favourites the Lottery Winners who were, as they have been every time I’ve seen then, outstanding. Every time I see the Lottery Winners play it makes me look forward to seeing them even more, they are a brilliant live act with a charismatic frontman who clearly still can’t quite believe how well things are going for them.
We popped over briefly to watch the Reytons, but the lack of sleep was catching up on all of us and we still had a two hour drive to get home so we decided to call the weekend there.
Kendal 2024 you were as brilliant as ever, my highlights were Paul Heaton with Rianne Downey (the best headliner), Shelf Lives, Dead Pony, The K’s Pale Waves and the Lottery Winners but there was so much amazing music and such a great vibe that the whole weekend was excellent.
Kendal 2025 is already on sale, what are you waiting for, its one of the best festivals in the UK and apparently, they already have one headliner booked (lots of speculation as to who it might be but no clarity). Get yourselves to Kendal, you really won’t regret it!