FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Kendal Calling 2025, Lowther Deer Park, 31st July – 3rd August 2025
Kendal Calling returns for the 20th anniversary of the festival and is now officially sold out, if you look at this year’s line-up you can see why it has sold out in record time. Find out a little more about who we’ll be seeing at the festival….
For the early birds getting down to pitch the tents on Thursday 31st July they can look forward to seeing rockers Kaiser Chiefs headline the opening day promising to play the classic Employment album in full alongside some greatest hits but we don’t predict a riot whilst Sophie Ellis-Bextor will bring her pop and dance music to get the party started in style with a collection of widely known singalong anthems. There will be many more artists performing on the Thursday and we should find out who they are soon enough.
The main headliners have a massive pulling power individually with Courteeners, Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy all expecting the biggest crowds of the weekend to watch their performances, but it’s not just about the headliners of course. There are so many great bands playing Kendal Calling this year including The Wombats, who have just come off a very successful arena tour around the UK as have Glasgow’s Travis who we were lucky to catch live at the OVO Hydro last December, their performance is guaranteed to go off big time but lets keep the fingers crossed that it doesn’t actually rain on us! The past year has saw The Last Dinner Party explode with sold out shows wherever they play around the UK.
If it’s some laughs you are after then look no further than comedian Jason Manford who will for sure fill out the area he plays in supported by other comedy acts proving that Kendal Calling is about more than just the music. Getting back to the music though we can look forward to a guaranteed singalong with Lottery Winners, we saw them on the recent tour and can’t recommend this band from Leigh highly enough while The K’s will release their second album this year and we will no doubt hear some new music from them at the festival, these guys had a massive 2024 and 2025 is looking just as good for them.
Looking down the list of bands signed up for this year’s festival and you will find the cream of the crop of up-and-coming bands including The Royston Club who are fresh off from headlining Sound City in Liverpool and we can confirm they were outstanding as was Nieve Ella. Irish rockers The Academic should be well worth seeing as are The Big Moon who we saw supporting Catfish & The Bottlemen last summer … the list of talent just goes on and on! The Clause, Corella, Overpass and IST IST are just some of the other bands that we can highly recommend. Scotland is also well represented this year with Travis, Nina Nesbitt, Brògeal, BMX Bandit’s & Friends and SOAPBOX bringing their own style of music to the Lake District. This is shaping up to be the best Kendal Calling festival to date!
Written by: Alan Brown
