Lowther Deer Park, Hackthorpe, CA10 2HN 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. read more