KENDAL CALLING IS 20
TWENTY YEARS OF KENDAL CALLING
Kendal Calling has been expanded steadily from a 900 to 35,000-capacity event since it was founded in 2006, with every edition having sold out. On the back of the 20th anniversary festival, its co-founder Andy Smith, along with key partners, outline the secret to the event’ s success.
This year’ s Kendal Calling saw 35,000 attendees treated to headline sets from Kaiser Chiefs, The Courteeners, Fatboy Slim, and The Prodigy. As with all previous editions the festival sold out in advance, but this year’ s ticket take-up was faster than ever with all of them snapped up less than three weeks after the lineup was announced.
The From The Fields-promoted event, which took place on 31 July-3 August at the Lake District’ s Lowther Deer Park, was one of the best in its two-decade history and the demand shows no sign of diminishing, according to its cofounder Andy Smith.
“ We are up 51 % on ticket sales, on this same point last year, for the 2026 festival,” he says.“ I’ m not surprised, because it was an incredible festival this year; we couldn’ t have done a better show.”
It’ s been a long and successful run since Smith launched the festival as a 17-year-old who successfully booked Pendulum and Kendal-born British Sea Power to headline the debut event with an audience of just 900.
Having been in a band and staged a series of small gigs and events in and around the local area, Smith became increasingly determined to have a go at staging a festival. The turning point came when he met Kendal Calling cofounder Ben Robinson.
“ I was involved in this fantastic council-funded initiative in Cumbria, led by music development charity Generator, which at the time was headed by Jim Mawdsley,” says Smith.“ The initiative found several promoters from across Cumbria and got them talking to one another with the idea that they would collaborate and create a touring network. Through it I met Ben, who had organised a small music festival in his little village. I said,‘ We should team up and do something. If you can make it work in your little village, imagine what we could do in Kendal; that ' s a comparative metropolis of 30,000 people’.”
Smith had already been talking to British Sea Power, and their manager Roy Wilkinson, who were looking to play a homecoming show but were unable to find a venue large enough in Cumbria.
42 accessaa. co. uk