Kendal Calling 2018 – by Collette Walsh

We are basically a bunch of music-lovin’ hippies here at Shine! as many readers know. We have a strong leaning towards featuring events, places and people that have an element of all the good things that make life just that little bit brighter without being overtly commercial, mainstream or unethical. Our tagline is ‘inspired living’ and that’s why we are off to the Kendal Calling music festival (26 to 29 July 2018) this weekend.

Now entering its 12th year, this gathering of creative, music-loving and partying souls started out as a boutique festival up in a beauty spot in the Lake District. It’s grown organically (yeah man) into a beautifully formed mid-size festival located at the stunning Lowther Deer Park in the Lakes (Cumbria – near Penrith) that can easily compete with any of the big fest players in the UK and Europe.

Not that KC is competitive; part of its charm is the lack of emulation of the now very over-sanitised festival culture we can see at the BIG events like Glasto. Instead, the focus is still on fun, being a bit silly (and perhaps a bit smelly, if only for a long weekend) and just having a flipping good time with friends, family (it’s particularly kid friendly) and fellow humans who also like to dance up and down to the same music you do!

This year’s line-up is typically a mix of good live indie names (Libertines, James), alongside some properly cool hip hop and funk legends – Run DMC (main stage Saturday) and Grandmaster Flash (who will be DJ-ing). Then there’s all kinds of shenanigans and frolics elsewhere, not least at the festival’s famous Tim Peaks’ Diner where literally anything can happen, including in recent years acoustic sets from the likes of Pete Doherty, Nick Hayward and Edwin Collins.

For the full line-up go to: the full line-up

Body n Soul – Temptation in the Garden of Eden

Want to chill, escape, detox? The festival’s excellent Garden of Eden is a lush forest area dedicated to holistic health and yoga. I for one will be heading down there and enjoying the yoga time-table that runs every day – fabulous.

The Garden is an area of gentle sanctuary and ideal if you need a bit of time out or just want to treat yourself or a friend to a healing treatment. We love that you can book from a range of 30 or 60 minute treatments delivered by experienced therapists using natural and organic products in luxurious yurts to get you feeling like new in the fields.

Art, Heart and Soul – Cultural Stuff

Installations, craft and art are now as much of a festival as the line-up. Visual creations massively enhance everyone’s experience at outdoor festivals, especially when combined with great music and people. Kendal Calling have embraced this with their Lost Eden project dedicated to art and culture.

There’s lots to see this year from the Coalescence Collective who takeover part of the forest, landing their giant illuminated Helibug, two illuminated crashed jet engines and fiery spectacles into the woods! New for 2018, the Red Stars beam into Lost Eden, bringing all kinds of futuristic trickery in to the woodland, I’m told. All in all, Kendal Calling 2018 is gonna be cosmic in every sense.