The trees have shed their leaves, the nights are drawing in and it’s just beginning to feel like you need to grab your big coat before leaving the house. Summer festivals are probably the furthest thing from the mind for most, but not for us of course, where it remains front and centre. It seems a common occurrence for people in our industry to tell someone their job and with a look of surprise they reply, “And you do that year-round?”, then follows a conversation around the complexities of crafting a small rural town for one weekend a year.
Since we returned the fields back to the wildlife in August, we’ve had plenty on our plates. From debriefing this year’s show, figuring out what worked and what didn’t, to assembling the line up for next year’s adventure. Those of you who have been coming long enough will notice changes each year, most of those stem from the feedback you provide and the subsequent conversations we have with our team, as we really do endeavour to fix all issues big and small. Albeit we unfortunately can’t remove some of those hills! The beautiful scenery of the Lake District does come with some drawbacks…
We know you’re all eagerly awaiting news about who might be joining us in the fields next year. The work on this particular task started way back in the Spring – I think we had our first conversation for a headliner back in March, though I’m sure internally we’d been dreaming it up since we announced the 2025 edition.
Each year is different on the artist front, some years it comes together quite quickly and others, it can take a bit of time. In many ways, it’s a bit like a jigsaw. Pieces begin to drop into place, but then you might spend a while searching for the missing piece that completes the puzzle.
Of course, there is the usual speculation around when the line-up might drop but honestly, there is no pattern to go off. It changes each year depending on various factors – from conflicting tour announcements to album campaigns to us managing to get enough in place for a full poster – overall, it’s always key to us that we get it right, rather than rush it.
For 2025, we’d booked Courteeners before we’d even stepped into the fields to begin building 2024’s festival – we even teased this with a little nod to them on our tapestry artwork in the Main Stage snicket – well done to the eagled eyed who spotted this! Both The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim dropped in swiftly after the show too. This was a real anomaly though, and for the most part it tends to be the new year before we find that missing piece of the jigsaw.
It’s never a simple process to assemble the bill, there are new challenges each year. It can be a lengthy process at times. From first conversation to confirmation, it can take months of emails and sometimes years of sparse conversations It’s been a long old road this year, but we’re really pleased with how it’s shaping up.
It’s not all about who finishes the night on the Main Stage though! As a festival, Kendal Calling is made up of a number of different worlds, and we have different curators across them. That’s how you end up with the pop-up magic of Tim Peaks, the wacky anything-goes nature of Parklands and the eclectic sounds of Chai Wallahs. It all forms this big melting pot of music that makes for a brilliant festival.
Everyone is making good progress, and we really feel this year is set to be an absolute classic with plenty of new faces and returning favourites alike – some of those returning acts haven’t played in over ten years!
We would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all of you who have booked early doors for 2026. We don’t want this piece to feel like an advert, but we’ve sold well over 90% of the tickets which is truly unheard of without having announced an act. It’s really important to say that this isn’t something we take for granted – if anything it adds to the pressure to ensure we come up with the goods! After all, we want you to continue to join us for many more festivals to come.
We know you’ll all be itching to know the line up for next year and trust us, we are just as keen to share it. However, we’ve still got a few I’s to dot and a few T’s to cross before we can unveil all on Kendal ’26. We appreciate your patience as always – and we do hope it’s all worth it in the end!
As seasoned Kendal Callers will know though, there is far more to Kendal than the line up – there is plenty to see and be discovered in all four corners of the Deer Park and our creative team have been busy working on new ideas to bring to the fields next year!
One of these new areas has been directly influenced by your feedback! We had lots of positivity around cocktails in our post event survey and thought, we have a venue for ale so why not have a venue for cocktails?! We’re still creating the backstory on this one though so keep an eye out in the new year for more details!
In other exciting news, we can also reveal that we’ll be returning to a theme from yesteryear and breathing new life into it. Any guesses where Kendal Calling might be heading back to?
Something else we’ve been working on is our merch. Taking inspiration from our motto of Leave Nothing But Memories, we’ve been crafting a new batch of garments made from organic cotton and sustainably sourced materials – with a real focus on quality. We’re hoping to make something that is more than just a memento, but a part of your everyday wardrobe. From hoodies to hats, T-shirts to fleeces – hopefully you can find something you like in our new range! We should hopefully have more on this in the next few days…
From the creative to the practical, we really do strive to improve every area of the festival year-on-year – it’s a point of pride for us. We know there has long been challenges with the drive into the festival and we’ve worked extensively with traffic management teams to see what can be done here, not just for festivalgoers but also to limit the impact on the wider towns and villages.
We’re still working on solutions, however we noticed this year we had a significant number of cars queuing from the early hours of the morning – as a result, we’ll be looking to open the car parks much earlier next year. Our hope is by having more cars in and parked earlier, we can keep traffic moving at a steadier rate throughout the day.
That just about wraps up this update! Plenty going on behind the scenes to bring together the next adventure, and plenty to look forward to in the weeks and months ahead! Just 262 sleeps to go until we’re all reunited in Lowther – not that we’re counting or anything…
We’ll see you in the fields!
Andy, Ben & The KC Team
