A note from one of our founders Ben..
It was 20 years ago today, well last week actually, that I put on my first ever show as a promoter.I grew up in a village in the Eden Valley of Cumbria with a population of 600 people. It was a bold plan to fill a venue in the local truck stop with two unknown bands from the other side of the county, 20 people showed up, a month later 120 people showed up, the month after that 10 people showed up. This summer, a lot of you are coming to the Eden Valley for a gig and I often wonder how on earth this all started.
It often feels like Kendal Calling has always existed, for anyone under 18 attending it always has, but there was a time that a festival in Cumbria was a mere pipe dream, a drunken conversation met with a wall of ‘that’ll never work round here’ from onlookers. The truth is that I would never have put on a gig if it was not for meeting Andy Halsey of the local charity Music Links one day while at work in a bank in Kendal. Lost in the corporate office world after dropping out of an art degree, I enquired about what he did for a living while running him ‘through security’ and seeing his job involved music. Twenty minutes of chatting later with a big queue of annoyed bank customers behind him, he’d explained how he was running a scheme to help wannabe Cumbrian promoters. I then explained how I’d always thought about putting on gigs as there were so many great local bands but nowhere for them to play, oh and all the local nights out had dreadful DJ’s, who finished every night with Bryan Adams’ “Summer of 69” when we’d have rather heard Primal Scream or Beastie Boys!
A week later I travelled to a meeting organised by Music Links and Generator (the North East music development agency) and I met a young guy called Andy Smith who was starting out as a promoter in Kendal. We got to know each other and through the support of Generator along with a youthful abandon for risk taking, we eventually worked together to put on a show at the Brewery Arts Center in Kendal. It was a full room and we needed a bigger one – the only issue is, we couldn’t find one so we thought.. what if we put up a tent… the rest you know.
This year we’re turning our attention back to the roots of the festival and have partnered with Cumbrian music development agency Soundwaves, BBC Introducing, local promoter Oh My Days and we welcome Generator back to Cumbria to host the new Roots stage.
Three days of carefully curated music by local people on-the-ground, ensuring the cream of the crop get their foot on the festival ladder. Catering to all corners of the Kendal audience with varying genres across the weekend, we’re certain everyone can discover something new in the fields this year.
