Kendal Calling’s co-founder has said this year’s line-up will be the festival’s biggest yet.
For the first time since 2015 a total of five major headliners – instead of four – will be performing in the fields at the three-day event.
It comes after last year’s festival was hailed a ‘phenomenal’ success by organisers and saw some 35,000 people descend on the Penrith Lowther Deer Park site to watch performers including Rick Astley, Blossoms and Royal Blood.
Co-founder Andy Smith said organisers were very excited about this year’s line-up with over half of the available tickets already sold out.
He said: “It has not been the simplest bill to put together but we have got to a place we are really proud of. We’ve got five headliners this year, which is just brilliant.
“We did have a headliner pull out just before Christmas which kind of set us back, but we managed to overcome that even more so. So we’re very excited, it’s going to be another cracker.
“It’s been quite difficult beating last year’s line-up but that’s the thing, every year you do your best and then the day after the festival you think oh god how are we going to beat that?
“But we’ve now got a brilliant line-up put together and we can’t wait to share some of it – but that’s what 8am on Thursday is for.”
When asked if he could give a flavour of what headliners festivalgoers can expect, Andy said something different was on its way.
He said: “We’ve got something different coming on the Saturday to open the main stage. We thought we’d mix things up a little bit in a way that we haven’t previously and we’re going to be bringing in a some new stages to the mix as well.
“We only had the last headliner drop in last night actually and we normally don’t get confirmation on a Sunday but it was really great news – I had a Guinness to celebrate.
“With having five headliners this year we always have ideas of who we want to see perform but it depends on their tour schedules and if they’re available and this time around in the end it turned out to be more than we anticipated.
“But we’re very happy with the headliners, and I know it will make people very happy. They’re excellent performers and I know they’ll perform an excellent show. If we had a roof, we’d blow it off.”
Andy also confirmed the festival’s fancy dress theme has been decided and will be announced slightly later down the line.
He said: “We have got a theme now and it’s a banger, it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a number of years.”
The festival team are currently busy booking marquees and infrastructure to start the build later in the year and further details on the new stages coming to the festival are also set to be announced at a later date.
Organisers have said 2024 has so far proved one of the festival’s fastest selling years and registration for pre-sale tickets is currently open.
The full line-up of headline acts and a over 120 performers are set to be announced on Thursday at 8am.
Pre-sale tickets will go live on Friday January 26 at 10am along with a limited number of live-in vehicle, Emperors Field and Great Plains tickets.
