Festival Coverage: Kendal Calling - Day 1

We arrive early Friday as the rain pours at Kendal Calling, quickly getting our act together, our tent's up and we're off. First stop, the original Tim Peaks diner who occupy their usual hut at the top of the festival site. Here we purchase our festival essential – an unlimited supply of Yorkshire Tea.

We settle in to this year's space theme, and head over to hear from Steve Hanley formerly of The Fall, about his new book The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall which was ghost written by Olivia Piekarski. They describe it as the warts and all truth about The Fall whilst being careful of not revealing too much. His story sounds particularly interesting so much so that we feel compelled to pick up a copy of the book.

As the rain continues to pour we find sustenance before checking out the brilliant Norma Jean Martine who takes away the rain and brightens up our day. Her beautiful lyrics fill the air and as the crowds swells, her contemporary pop music cheers us up.

However, we've been given a tip off about a local band playing up at the Woodlands stage, on our way we stumble into the Calling Out tent and catch the latter part of The Ramona Flowers set. Their poppy single ‘Vultures’ is the perfect electro indie that drives the UK indie scene and certainly gets this festival crowd going.

Up in the Woodlands we are just in time for My Little Brother, a band from Carlisle, just thirty minutes from the festival site. They shock us with their brilliant, well-crafted folk-pop and brilliant lyricism that provokes huge grins from the large crowd that's amassed. Songs like ‘If We Never Came Down’ and ‘My Hypocritical Friend’ sound superb and help to keep spirits high despite the grey skies.

We head straight back to Tim Peaks for what has to be one of the highlights of the whole weekend, The Everley Pregnant Brothers. This ukulele orchestra features Pete McKee legendary illustrator and designer of this years limited edition Tim Peaks mug. They're a parody band of epic proportions, today we see them playing 'Common People', 'Creep' 'and No Woman No Cry' with the words substituted for "no oven, no pie."

We then get the opportunity to see Leeds' Dinosaur Pile Up who're as raucous as ever tearing up The House Party tent. A perfect way for us to warm up for the evening's entertainment. The poor weather from earlier seems to be a thing of the past andthe festival is in full swing now.

We take the short walk over to the Calling Out tent to see a band we're particularly fond of, Admiral Fallow. With tracks like ‘Squealing Pigs’ and ‘The Paper Trench’ provoke huge singalongs, there seems to be a particularly passionate crowd, as the front row looks overjoyed, singing back every word.

We headed over to the main stage as we were expecting the hip hop institution that is De La Soul. Unfortunately due to traffic they're 45 minutes late, but when they do turn up, they bring the party. From making the photographers put their cameras down and join the party, to thrilling us with a plethora of hits, the crowd may have booed them before they appeared, but these guys take it all in their stride and it's not long before every person is the crowd is back on side.

As the time of the headliners approaches we find time to fit in some of Catfish and The Bottlemen, it would appear that it's lead singer Van’s birthday and he's clearly overwhelmed by the overflowing Calling Out tent. As the crowd take to singing back every word of 'Pacifier' and the ever popular 'Kathleen'. Our time here is cut short though as we're called back to the main stage for this evenings headliner.

Suede taking to the stage this year seems rather poignant, after all, this year is the 20th anniversary of Brit Pop. Closing out the day on the main stage with a set packed full of hits including ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘Trash’ which both feature early on. Brett Anderson, one of the kings of Brit Pop, surveys the Kendal Calling landscape with his subjects bowing at his feet . There really is an unbelievable reaction to the legends.

We split our time between headliners though as we've been looking forward to seeing Jimi Goodwin live because his solo material is truly excellent. His set also provides us with a greatly relaxing end to our first day. At least we thought that this was the end, we head over to our favourite late night eatery Ghandis Flip Flop and take a moment to survey the site, a look which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that this festival is not all about the music. The site is more alive than ever, especially after the main acts have left the stages, with amazing fire displays and late night discos and the Riot Jazz tent that looks like it is just getting started.

However, we're distracted by the noise emanating from the Chai Wallahs tent, wandering up to find the brilliant Mr Scruff. He's just embarking upon one of his mammoth sets but alas, tiredness takes over and we make our way back to our tent having thoroughly enjoyed the first day. Despite the weather, everyone's spirits remain high and so far we're yet to see anyone who's not enjoying themselves.