This year was the 20th Birthday of Kendal Calling 2025. Each year that has passed has seen the event go from strength to strength and this year was no exception. A sell out crowd of over 45,000 attendees over the course of 4 days and guaranteed the vast majority went home with a big smile and the hope of returning next year. The weather gods smiled, departure day apart! Multiple stages ranging from the impressive Main Stage, set in its natural amphitheatre, giving probably the best views for thousands at any UK festival, the large Parklands and Coming Out, down to more intimate Woodlands and BBC Introducing/Roots stages and a few more in between.
So when it came to choosing which artists to go see, the once predominately indie festival now has something for just about everyone, spoilt for choice comes to mind, top headliners were The Courteeners, Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, with Kaiser Chiefs on the Thursday night. If you add in the likes of The Last Dinner Party, Travis, The Wombats, Sophie Ellis Baxter you knew we were In for a good time. That’s not mentioning the other 100 plus artists performing.
As well as catching up with some personal favourites, for me half the fun of a festival is discovering new musical talent you have not come across before. Some finds for me this year include The Wednesday Flowers, a young all girl group, with a nice indie/grunge vibe, the emotive Talia Rae, atmospheric Robyn Errico, alt.pop from Isabel Maria and sultry voiced Lois, a quartet of talented singer songwriters destined for bigger things, the bands Long Island, High Fade, Dutch Criminal Record and They Say Jump. Add to this some more established artists I managed to catch up with included Nina Nesbitt, Nieve Ella, Siobhan Winifred, Chloe Slater, Lowes, Dub Pistols and the Lottery Winners. It was great to see even the artists on earlier in the day and on the smaller stages still brought in decent sized appreciative audiences and I personally didn’t come across one bad performance out of more than twenty I took in, the vast majority being top notch.
Whilst there can always be room for improvement, address the queues to get on site on the Thursday, the very long hikes from camping and parking and some acts needed a bigger stage are more logistical than anything else. The whole production, sound quality, lighting, amazing visuals and fireworks, the people, the vibe, the energy all come together to deliver one off the best Festival experiences you can have.
I was fortunate enough to be able to photograph the festival as well, so do check out some shots on the Music News Social Media sites.
Tickets go on sale for Kendal Calling 2026 on Thursday 7th August 2025, another sold out event would not surprise me.
MUSIC PREMIERES
Aphex Twin quietly shared two new songs on his SoundCloud account, surprising fans with the sudden upload.
Read More: Aphex Twin at Printworks, London: still one of the greatest electronic shows on earth
The tracks are called ‘Zahl am1 live track 1’ and ‘Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd’. They seem to be two different takes on the same piece of music and were added to his page (username: user18081971) yesterday (November 27).
Both songs use cover photos that show the artist, real name Richard D. James, in the ocean with his partner. In the description for ‘Zahl am1 live track 1c f760m1 unfinshd’, he wrote, “Got many requests for this one from a few years back. Italy, pic with my love from Sicily recently. Need sun, relentlessly raining in the UK. Mixed down on the Zähl, think there are better mixes, will upload them if I find them.”
You can listen to the songs below:
The electronic musician’s most recent project was the 2024 compilation ‘From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)’, which also arrived without advance notice. It collects everything the celebrated producer and DJ had released through eight years of vinyl editions that fans could only get from the merch stand at his live performances.
The release followed a new expanded version of his 1994 album ‘Selected Ambient Works II’ in October for its 30th anniversary. His most recent full studio album is 2014’s Grammy Award winning ‘Syro’.
In 2025, Aphex Twin has put much of his attention into his work with streetwear brand Supreme. This has included creating a playlist for the company that features nearly 200 songs, most of which lean toward calm and slow moving styles.
