After a wet Friday night at Kendal Calling 2024, Saturday sees the sunshine return to Cumbria. Indie rock rookie Melanie Baker takes full advantage of the balmy weather to deliver a breezy, upbeat performance to a bright and enthused midday crowd.
Kendal Calling boasts a diversity of entertainment, ranging from DJ and unicycling workshops to stand up comics. Famed funny man Russell Howard amuses a good spirited audience onlooking the sun soaked Main Stage. Revellers are reduced to hysterical laughter by Howard’s quips and quick wit.
As the afternoon wears on, Mancunian band Corella are met with a warm reception, vowing to “bring the party” to the Cumbrian hillside. Ensuing cuts ‘Barcelona Girl’ and ‘Puppet’ make good on their promise, inciting an urgent canter to the closest mosh pit. Lead singer Joel Smith takes the opportunity to join the rowdy audience, crowd surfing gleefully.
Tucked away amongst the dense tree line, the Woodlands Stage hosts Irish shoegaze band NewDad. The quartet’s moody, atmospheric aura lends itself to an apt cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’. Bristolian six-piece Home Counties take to the same podium, cleverly utilising cowbell, recorder and synthesisers as the rays of sun begin to dissipate behind the lofty branches.
While the glitzy Sugababes throw a singalong party on the Main Stage, Welsh indie rockers The Royston Club garner a devout following beneath the Calling Out big top. Playing cuts from their debut album including ‘Mrs Narcissistic’ and ’52’, The Royston Club are touted as torchbearers for the renaissance of British guitar music.
Saturday night’s hardy headliner Mike Skinner, known by his moniker The Streets, proves his age to be no object, diving head first into the crowd for his first song. A makeshift wall of death with participants dressed as Pokémon is hastily commanded, no sooner to be dissolved in a melee. Skinner performs an array of high octane garage tracks recalling experiences from his younger days, telling stories of heartbreak and cruel hangovers.
In the wake of The Streets’ colossal headline display, the festivities persist into the early hours, with silent discos and dancing lasting all night long.
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