Lowther Deer Park, Hackthorpe, CA10 2HN…read more Warning this a lengthy review - hope it has some useful information. Just spent a lovely weekend at Kendal Calling. A small (8 thousand) independent festival in a great location on the edge of the Lake District. A great time seemed to be had by all and we left the site on Monday afternoon having drunk deeply at the well (and the bar!) but feeling strangely rested and well fed!! Long drive back to Nunhead but no pain no gain. All credit to the organisers who put together a really beautiful well run site, which was kept on an even keel by a polite but efficient security team who appeared to have some sense of how to keep everyone happy and safe. Music - headliners on the Saturday The Doves played an epic set which was a joy to behold. Calvin Harris and The Coral were less successful. The Badly Drawn Boy played a blinder on the Sunday afternoon and you could feel the collective goose bumps ripple through the crowd when he brought his daughter on for a duet. As ever much of the best stuff was to be found in the smaller tents. Crossiant Neuf hosted the Kaylied tent which had a good rotation of folky, rootsy type acts during the day and a more ska, funk and house vibe in the evening. Ideally located next to the pub!! The Glow tent was the main dance area but on the few occasions I visited seemed a bit dull and lacking in volume. The House Party tent got my vote; properly decked out kitschy front room to chill in during the day and old school house party at night. Dave Haslam's balearic set was highly uplifting and typical of the music policy. A very excited Craig Charles finished the whole thing somewhere around 3 on Monday morning in the Kaylied tent with a good time funk and soul set which had the walls dripping and the crowd raising the roof. Other stuff - plenty of jazz, juggling, karaoke, very amusing and inventive fancy dress, Cumbrian olympics and a bit of theatre, Howard Marks etc, etc. Food and Drink - excellent range of small independent stalls with not a burger van on the whole site. Lovers of Mexican food were particularly well served and the Turkish chicken casserole from Johnny Baghdad was very tasty. Plenty of veggie options too. In general most main dishes were priced around £5-6 and seemed great value coming from London. Plenty of the bog standard festival bars selling Tuborg etc dotted around the site but for beer lovers the place to be was the Holy Quail pub which had an excellent selection of local ale including a Hawkshead Pale which was drinking so well it was gone by Saturday lunchtime. The Hawkshead bitter was a good alternative and was also drinking very well and ran out on the Sunday afternoon. By that time a cheeky vodka and red bull was starting to seem like a good idea anyway!! Camping - it might be small but get there on the Thursday to secure a tasty pitch. Quiet field was lively, friendly and reasonably well spaced out. The main areas were slightly chaotic but seemed to suit those who fancied being up all night. Family area was quiet and worth considering just to be able to get your car on site as it was a long hike to the camping areas. Toilets and showers - must admit I thought the toilets looked inadequate for the crowd but they seemed to be cleaned reasonably often and were still fine on the Monday morning. The thought of freestyling did not seem to enter anyones head. The 6 Eco friendly showers seemed even more inadequate but at £3.50 a go we never queued for more than 10 minutes!! The punters - pretty much all tribes welcome and a very mixed bag with a healthy dose of harmless 17/18 year olds who tended to camp in groups of about 20 and sit around all day and night drinking Fosters. Plenty of 20 to 50's with or without children. All very friendly and many thanks to our neighbours who roasted up a fine joint of lamb for all in the vicinity and passed on a top tip for how to get my car on site on the Monday morning - love those cheeky Northern monkeys.

Great bike rally, attended by a couple of thousand bikers, some good headline bands over the years…read more 21st anniversary this year (2011). Good facilities provided by the castle ie showers & proper toilets. Organised by MAG NE. I have been for the last 6 years & intend to continue. Safe & family friendly.

I have been to Leeds Festival about five times and it's one of my favourite times of the year! The…read morefestival takes part on August bank holiday weekend, with an early entry ticket permitting access to the campsite as early as the Wednesday, and the festival ending on Monday morning. The music is on on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, usually from about midday till 11pm ish. Not only is there music but also comedians and sometimes films are shown. There are also various DJ sets/music tents on an evening as well as different bars-it all varies year on year. The festival area consists of different campsite areas, the carparks, and then the arena itself. There's quite a lot of camping space however if you don't get there that early it can be difficult to get a decent space. The arena contains all the different stages, loads of food vans/counters, bars, and rides. The cost of Leeds Fest goes up every year but it's about £200 now for a weekend of camping and seeing loads of bands and things. It's not bad value but it is creeping up a lot. I love Leeds fest as it's a fun weekend full of music, friends, camping, drinking, and laughing.

An amazing music festival that you should definately go to if you live up North! It's a great…read moreatmosphere and always gets good bands in their line up! It's not that far from Leeds City Centre, but traffic can be well bad so get there early as poss. I saw soooooo many people just chilling out on their bonnets of their cars this year in the queue to get there, but then again that's part of the fun!! It's over £100 for the weekend ticket, can't remember how much more, but it's well worth it! Don't go for just a day unless you HATE camping, because you pay quite a bit more to just go for a day and the music alone is worth staying for!!

The Durham Regatta is an annual event, held on the River Wear. Rowing races held between the local…read moreuniversities & collages including visiting establishments. All number of stalls & activities can be found along the river bank on the cricket ground side throughout the weekend. Well worth a visit for locals & visitors alike. A nice family day out.

If only this were annual instead of biennial! Every odd-numbered year, puppets of the world descend…read moreon the little town of Skipton, and it's absolutely worth the journey around the globe. With the programme growing every time in proportion to the festival's reputation, there really is something for everyone - even (and perhaps especially) for people who profess to dislike puppetry. There's such a huge range of artistry and style that it's my personal opinion that not liking puppets is like not liking food; what - ALL food? ALL puppets? That's why this festival is so important: it introduces people to puppetry as an art form, as something beyond seaside Punch & Judy. There are shows for children, shows for all ages, shows you wouldn't dream of taking children to, shadow puppets, glove puppets, rod puppets, foot puppets, hand puppets, puppets that aren't even puppets until someone picks them up and moves them in a certain way... Every single show this year was a total sell-out, but the free side shows and walkabouts in the hub area at the canal basin are worth a look even if you can't get to a show. A real highlight of the weekend is the giant puppet parade. Anyone is welcome to create a puppet at one the workshops before the festival, and the whole community and all the visiting performers march down the High Street, all colours and ribbons and extraordinary movements. The time of year also means that, for the last two festivals, everything has taken place in bright, warm sunshine. There could perhaps be more happening in the hub area once the sun sets - unless you're in the beer tent or one of the marquee venues, you could be forgiven for thinking everything had finished for the day. Some live outdoor music and a couple of after-dark walkabouts would just top everything off perfectly. They're constantly striving to improve on an already majestic weekend, with feedback and suggestion forms handed out to anyone who will take them, so I can't wait to see what they'll accomplish on the back of this year's success. Again, if only this were every year. If only it lasted for longer than a weekend. The organisers manage to pull together a world-class programme every time; roll on 2015, I say!

clearly the best festival in the North of England! Free from the usual over -priced, over-hyped…read morecorruption of other UK festivals, such as Glasto, Beatherder offers laid back barminess and lancashire inspired frolics for a weekend :) Set in the rolling hills of the ribble valley one can feel free and wild, whilst wearing appropriate flat cap and ballgown. It's getting more family orientated now with lots of workshops and creativity going on amongst the ale and cider stomping. "Proper" bands/orchestra's can be seen, musical instruments and all, along with banging, stomping underground dance etc. get yer self downs there innit :) £45 early bird ticket- no excuse! Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpYE4vFIF5I

You know, it was said that his little brother Joaquin, was the thorn in River's Side. I don't think…read morethat's fair, especially since Joaquin became something of a Phoenix from the flames after River's death. What I want to know is, in the Sahara, where there is no water, where do all the Rivers Hide? First-Hand Experience: More info about my personal experience at this stadium - I love the Riverside. In 2004 when I was touring the UK, I visited for the first time and was utterly impressed even though it was located on a building site. I went back in 2005 and ate a Parmo while sitting on the steps of the stadium (I'm not kidding). I like it better than Sunderland's Stadium Of Light, believe it or not. Then I finally was able to watch a match here in 2011, and what a game it was. High-scoring and a really loud, intense crowd. I've seen Boro play away, but their fans really get behind them at home, unlike most other clubs, and The Riverside might be one of the 10 places I'd most like to go back and see another game - asap - in the UK. I've been to most UK & US stadiums, due to lifelong obsessions with travel, sport & especially footy (soccer to Americans). Born & raised in England, I followed Oxford United (hometown team) to stadia all over the country at away games, and later Liverpool (fave team) around. Every stadium review - like all my reviews - are from first-hand personal experience, usually from several visits. In 2011, I was on music tour in the UK, and visited most stadiums for fun in my spare time. As recently as Fall 2014, when I was "stuck" in UK for 3 months, I went to hundreds yet again while travelling. I have pictures of me at most, which I'll post later. Also, when back in UK I'll take more pix, and add more stadia! *** return to regular review *** This is one of Britain's best stadiums. It's stunning, red, grand, and wonderful. It's surrounded by a building site and an industrial sludge river and factory upon factory, but that almost adds to its charm. Young kids play in the industrial wasteland around the stadium and pretend they are Gaizka Mendieta. This was a great Prem stadium and will be again someday soon. They even incorporated part of the old stadium into the new, with the gates of Ayresome Park. Middlesbrough is the team that plays here, and it has hosted UEFA Cup Semi Finals among other things. In person, it's one of the loveliest stadiums I've been to. It can hold 35k, and England have played here before. That was the only time the stadium ever sold out. 2003, England 2, Slovakia 1.

Great place to see magnificent football with great atmosphere in the west stand. Sounds class from…read moreoutside cant afford a ticket but still know grant leadbitters dog.

Knaresborough turns pink in August for The Knaresborough Festival of Entertainment and…read moreVisual Arts (FEVA) feva 2009 will run from Friday 14 to Sunday 23 August Check out the website for more info http://www.knaresborough.co.uk/festival/

What a truely immense weekend with sunshine and some VIP free bar abuse. This festival is really…read morethe muts nuts. Get it in your diaries for next year, along with some super fine fizz, hideous porto loos and trench foot. Well maybe not the last two. Seriously beer, music and sunshine win win win!