We are back from a mostly-gloriously-sunny Kendal Calling 2024 and fully hydrated for what is probably the first time since Thursday.

The festival was back at Lowther Deer Park with a wonderfully diverse line-up in its usual beautiful setting. This all sets it apart as one of the finest mid-sized festivals in the UK.

Tickets for 2025 are on sale from Thursday with a line-up announcement not expected for many months, but the festival as always been more about a vibe than names on a poster (though it often nails both).

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These were our conclusions from Kendal Calling 2024. See you in those fields again next year.

The Lottery Winners and Kendal Calling go hand-in-hand

From a set that nobody saw in 2012 to a rammed headline set at the Parklands Stage on Sunday in 2024, it’s not been a meteoric rise for The Lottery Winners, but rather a hard-fought one that they thoroughly deserve.

Only The Lancashire Hotpots and Tim Burgess could claim to have more of an affinity with the festival than The Lottery Winners. Their inflatables went up against one of the weekend’s more anticipated sets in the flares of The Reytons on main stage and vindicated anyone who had to make that tough decision.

Some bands rely on bangers (Start Again, Worry and Letter to Myself especially go off) and some on magnetic on-stage performance – The Lottery Winners have both in buckets. Keep booking them. Keep letting me see them.

The best food is found where there’s no queues

Yes, I am a self-confessed food snob. Yes, I still bemoan the loss of veggie Indian stalwarts Ghandi’s Flip Flop from Kendal Calling. But as age batters me around the head in the week following Kendal, I know I ate very well all weekend.

A Sri Lankan fish curry (that left PNE reporter George Hodgson so spiced up that he nearly fainted in the queue for a beer) started things off, and a trio of curries from Tibetan Kitchen along with four momos (dumplings) finished me off, via tacos, a burrito and other things I can’t remember but strongly believe were good.

The conclusion is: avoid the generic. Burgers and Yorkshire puddings might look tempting, but they aren’t the one.

Sometimes a safe booking is okay

Paul Heaton on the Thursday and Noel Gallagher on the Friday is booking from festival organisers that know their crowd.

The main stage is there for crowd pleasers and that’s exactly what those artists – and others – delivered. Sure, Noel’s non-Oasis stuff is feeling more cursory than ever, but the Oasis half turned Lowther Deer Park into a communal effort that barely needed his presence anyway.

As a Thursday opener and fresh off a televised Glasto performance, Heaton delivered banger after banger, showing exactly what a massive contribution they’ve made to music.

Pop and nostalgia girlies deliver

Kate Nash into Sugababes on the main stage on Saturday was also pretty inspired. Nash knows Kendal Calling well – and how to whip up a festival crowd – and from Dickhead through to Foundations, she delivered.

But there will have been plenty of people arguing Sugababes deserved a headline slot. Some parts emotional, some parts empowering, not many bands out their have that back catalogue. About You Now was the most nuts I saw that main stage crowd go all weekend (though, I did miss The Reytons and their red smoke).

More comedy

Two years ago Bill Bailey hurt my ribs and this year it was Russell Howard.

Comedy on the main stage at Kendal Calling is a relatively new thing but it delivers every time. From the organisers’ point of view, it gets crowds into that arena early. From mine, it gives a much-needed Saturday afternoon giggle to break up the weekend.

Off the beaten path

Showing some good DIY skills in leafletting our group on the Thursday, The Empty Page – some noisemakers from Manchester – delivered a set to blow off the cobwebs on Friday lunchtime at The Calling Out Stage.

Granfalloon, a band from Preston music scene stalwart Richard Lomax, starred on The Woodlands Stage and offered something a little more quiet, beautiful and introspective on Sunday. Both had songs about witches. Both are worth listening to.

Peace headlined The Calling Out Stage on Saturday and repaid the decision we made to dodge The Streets over on the main.

Other bits

I don’t have any particular affection for Brewdog but the bars were incredibly well-managed and the cup deposit scheme has a tangible impact on the mess (or lack of) people leave behind.

The silent disco is great. I missed Gary Neville.

The policy of having to bring your alcohol with you on the first entrance to the campsite, when you invariably have your tent too, feels like it punishes people who don’t have a trolley or can’t carry loads. Security didn’t seem too bothered about enforcing that one, mind.

I saw plenty of people complaining about the amount of chairs at the main stage, but it’s a family-festival that nails the vibe and it was mostly glorious weather. The vast majority of people were polite and lovely even if they wanted different things from their Kendal experience.

The way it should be.

Andy Smith, co-founder of Kendal Calling said, “From Paolo Nutini to Gary Neville, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds to Dick & Dom, packed out fields for Sugababes and The Reytons to the legendary Barrioke, woodlands adventures and swashbuckling parades… even a special visit from the Fury family backstage.

“The history books continue to be written, and 19 years in this could, quite possibly, have been our best one yet! As festival goers set off for another year and we return the fields to the wildlife who call it home, we want to extend an enormous and heartfelt ‘thank you!’ to each and every one who makes Kendal Calling the magical place that it is!

“The revelry, the community and the unutterable feeling of joy spans every corner of our site and that… is all down to you!”

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