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
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
