Kendal Calling: Preview

As I touched upon earlier, festival season is in full swing, and once again I'm doing the usual trick of turning-up, hopefully enjoying it, hopefully not being too busy and just suffering not drinking and potentially needing to run around a lot for the honour of getting in for free by doing it as a St Johnnie.

Of course, because I'm local it also means I get to do it slightly differently, by returning home to a nice, warm, bed instead of sticking on a cold, damp, muddy campsite.

I'm only there two nights ( :-( ) because of working on Monday morning, and I think two 8pm-8am shifts on Friday and Saturday is more than enough to destroy the bodyclock.

Hopefully, this means that I'll be able to most 'proper' posts (as opposed to dodgy text posts, if I get the thing working) with videos and photos as the weekend goes on.

 

So, what am I looking forward to?

Well, Friday night is comparatively quiet on the music front. I might be able to catch a bit of Goldie Lookin Chain - not really my sort of music, but good for a laugh. After that, if I've got freedom, it's a choice between The Streets (I've got their first album, would be great to hear some of their new material) or Fight Like Apes - and I think I'd probably prefer to wander over to the "We are Calling" stage to hear the lesser known group. I described them as 'crazed' previously, so they'll probably fit my criteria. After that the main stage dies down, so I'll just have to find some new talents on the Keylied Stage, or see if I'm likely to enjoy anything on the Traffic Stage.

Saturday into Sunday is a bit busier - although I'm slightly annoyed to probably be sleeping through Whiskey Cats and Red Light Company. If I wander in slightly earlier, hot on the scene Twisted Wheel will be worth a watch for sure, but I've seen headliners The Zutons too many times in the past 14 months to get really excited by the prospect of that. So, the question is if I'll head instead to watch Tommy Sparks or Frank Turner. Funky electronica or relaxing acoustic probably depends on my mood at the time.

Of course, I'll go wherever I'm bid, but I'm hopeful I'll see at least some of the above and whatever else I come across will be a worthwhile experience. Watch this space over the weekend for an example of a family-friendly, easy-going, positively rural festival.

UPDATE 30.07.09 18:35 - Temptation won the better of me, and with a spare holiday that needs using up before the end of August I'm now off on the Sunday night as well. It's another night shift to keep with the pattern, so sadly still missing Rumble Strips and probably Noah and the Whale. But, I should be in time for Idlewild, definitely on site (subject to running off in an Ambulance) for Ash, Craig Charles, Mumford and Sons, and I might just be able to watch the Whiskey Cats after all. Which is probably a good swap for a days hol.

Obviously, I'm not sure exactly how much I'll be sleeping over the weekend, but I will try and update when I can. Probably not from the site though due to limitation on moblogging (in that I can't).