Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds live at the Liverpool Echo Arena (Photo: Gary Mather for Live4ever Media)
Like Rocky vs Ivan Drago or Harry Potter vs the weird bald dude, sometimes the winner isn’t as obvious as it looks on paper.
Kendal Calling seemingly prides itself on size, selling an almost quaint, unassuming and friendly weekend. Your more experienced festival goer might even look on with scorn, but if Rocky’s taught us anything it’s that thinking like that will get you knocked the f*** out.
Like Rocky, Kendal punches seriously above its weight. You might arrive expecting ‘quaint’, but quaint ain’t what you’re getting. This is a serious festival, with serious intentions that reach way above anything you would expect them to be able to achieve.
In just over a decade they’ve managed to build a festival that looks and feels like it has been here forever – already replete with its own traditions and vernacular, it’s very impressive. Most people there seem to have been coming since it began, it taking on an almost Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall mystique as this many people weren’t there for the first one, surely..?
For a festival of its size it really packs in the features, like the festival equivalent of an iPad standing next to Glastonbury’s Macbook Pro. It might have all the same features as its bigger sibling, but blimey it can do almost everything, enough to make you wonder why you’d spend so much on the other. And the Apple metaphor’s not stopping there, because it’s the quality with which they do it that’s impressive. It’s no cheap Glastonbury knockoff. They created their very own heritage and history all perfectly fitting with its design and surroundings.
Musically it’s a wonderfully packaged little surprise too, catering for almost any taste with enough surprises and curios, big and small, to turn a few heads. You have to marvel at the booking because on paper it could be considered disparate or random, but on the day and in the field it’s a joyous party that never ceases to amaze.
When your headliners include The Charlatans, Rudimental and Noel Gallagher you might think Madness could be a little out of their depth and past their best. Even worrying that this might be too much even for them. The reality, however, is astonishing. They don’t just keep up, they literally blow the other contenders out of the water. This isn’t meant as any disrespect to the others, whose sets are extraordinary, but at points – when they are truly hitting their stride – it’s a peculiar and powerful concoction. Feelings of excitement, nostalgia, drunkenness and passion course through the crowd, song after song.
As for the rest, it’s a veritable buffet of delights throughout the weekend. On the most notable list are not necessarily who you’d expect. The Hives deliver yet again, one of the performances of the weekend, full of as much incredible music and insane and witty banter. The beautiful Kelis delivers hit after hit, many of which you had either forgotten or didn’t even realise were hers. Maximo Park were late and great. Rat Boy gets better with every show and Spring King were huge. Donovan’s still got it, Band of Skulls, as usual, were brilliant and SlyDigs were a wonderful find.
And on and on this list could go. The point is the only thing better than getting the sunshine at a festival is getting the right bands, and Kendal had nailed the menu to the wall pretty hard this year. With further honourable mentions going to the Jagerhouse DJ’s around 4pm on Saturday for creating real insanity far too early.
After a weekend like this, you’re sure of only two things: 1. You feel very sore and 2. You’re booking immediately for next year, which is a feeling not felt for many a year. Turns out it wasn’t being jaded that affected your enjoyment of festivals in recent years, it was boredom. Because sunshine and bands will only take a festival so far, and without passion and excitement it’s just a noisy field.
Kendal Calling has put the passion and excitement missing from British festivals back where it belongs and now it is reaping the rewards.