It is four days and nights of top music acts, singing, dancing, eating, drinking, camping and trying to keep clean, but there is another side to Kendal Calling.
As Paolo Nutini, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Keane, Sugababes, Lightning Seeds and Lottery Winners around 200 artists take to the stages from August 1-4, around their performances charities will be aiming to hit their own high notes.
The award-winning music festival, which this year celebrates 15 years at Lowther Deer Park, is a huge money spinner. For some causes it is their biggest fundraiser of the year and being on site over the weekend is an experience local charities cannot afford to miss. Among the bars and food stands and all the other fun activities, their teams are on a mission to raise awareness of their work, sell merchandise, collect donations from 40,000 festival goers – while always having a good time.
So far the event has raised more than £280,000 over the years for charities that are able to send teams of fundraisers to the festival. From Penrith Show to Askham Swimming Pool, Brough FC to Growing Well mental health charity, many local causes have benefited.
Three charities currently have a regular slot at the festival, a benefit whose significance cannot be underestimated. As this year’s event gets underway, with the theme of Take to the High Seas, North West Air Ambulance and Hospice at Home will be there.
They all have a long-standing relationship with the festival and have been invited back year after year. In addition, several other charities each summer are invited to take up the opportunity to attend.
Co-founder of Kendal Calling Andy Smith is proud of the event’s legacy for multiple local charities and other causes. He says: “Kendal Calling takes place over one wonderful weekend each summer but we want to see the benefits extend throughout the year.
“Over time we have raised over £250,000 for various fantastic initiatives. Long standing charities include Guide Dogs for the Blind, following the legacy of my grandmother Beatrice who was chairwoman of the Fleetwood branch for many decades, alongside Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and James’ Place, all charities which are very close to our hearts.
“Around Kendal Calling you’ll see the fields made colourful with the presence of Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland decking the fields with their show-stopping effervescent sunflowers, Eden Animal Rescue and North West Air Ambulance. These charities join us each year and it’s marvellous how involved in the festival they are.”
It does not just put fundraising in the charities’ hands at Kendal Calling either; in an extension of its legacy it also supports others with donations.
Andy adds: “On our doorstep, in Askham, Lowther and other nearby villages, we continue to support fantastic local amenities such as Askham Swimming Pool, Hackthorpe Tennis Court, and Lowther Endowed School, whose pupils last year drew wonderful pictures of our musicians, which were printed on tea towels and sold out within hours – I didn’t have chance to get one myself!
“We also support grassroots biodiversity initiatives such as View from the River Eden which we enjoy swimming in during the site build and break, sport clubs like Cumbrian Women’s Rugby and Brough Football Club alongside the brilliant Penrith Lions, mental health intervention charity Growing Well and Penrith Show, another local event which we feel a strong bond with.”
NORTH WEST AIR AMBULANCE
An army of around 20 volunteers step forward to represent North West Air Ambulance Charity (NWAA) at Kendal Calling – and Cumbria fundraising manager Natalie Huddart has no trouble recruiting them.
The charity has been a regular at the festival since 2009, the first year since it moved to Lowther Deer Park from Kendal where it began in 2006.
“We have a range of people,” she explains. “People to help us put up and take down our gazebo, which we’ve had for three years, some volunteers who busk for us, others who meet people as they come into the festival; we have face painters and people who sell all our merchandise.
“Last year was a Summer of Love theme so we had flower headbands, John Lennon coloured sunglasses, lots of peace symbols. We certainly try to make our presence felt.
“Everyone wants to get behind the Air Ambulance. It’s very well supported and recognised.”
As well as an important fundraiser, Natalie says it is also about teamwork. “It’s a really great team building experience for our volunteers. We have a brilliant team who come together. We are family for that weekend and support each other.
“Yes, they get entrance to the festival and get to watch some amazing bands, but then they have some healthy competition and challenge each other so the Air Ambulance benefits. The amount they raise is outstanding, more than £5,000 last year.”
She adds: “We get a lot of staff support too. One of our pilots volunteered last year.”
Natalie says the total amount raised at Kendal Calling so far is around £30,000, making the festival its biggest fundraising event in Cumbria. “I don’t know anything else that comes close, and it’s also one of the biggest we get to in terms of footfall.”
She is proud that NWAA is “part of the Kendal Calling family”. “The original organisers chose us as a local charity when it was at Kendal and they have kept us as part of it since then.”
Among the team are big music fans like marketing officer Steph Owens. “They get some really good acts. I am a massive Rick Astley fan so I loved seeing him last year.
“The Lancashire Hotpots, who everybody loves, gave us a shout out on stage and came to visit our stall. We were glitter bearding them last year and they’ll be there this year so we’re looking forward to seeing them again. Noel Gallagher is a legend, I’ve seen Liam so it’ll be good to see his brother.”
The North West Air Ambulance serves an area of 5,500 square miles and a population of eight million people from Crewe to Carlisle. Its three helicopters operate out of Blackpool and it also has critical care road vehicles.
Last year the charity responded to 3,000 callouts; since 1999 it has had 45,000 callouts.
In Cumbria, it has one charity shop in Kendal, which contributes towards the £12million it costs to keep the Air Ambulance service operating. The charity is split into six regions which work together to raise money as “one crew”.
“The money we raise at Kendal Calling goes into our overall fundraising,” Natalie explains. “Our aim is to raise enough to fund one mission, which costs £4,500 on average, so we’re really pleased that we did that last year.”
With the High Seas theme in August, the team is gearing up for a ‘pirate party’. “We are going all out nautical with dress-up items and a pop-up shop. It’ll be a sea of green and blue.
“We’ll have a kids’ corner with games and drawing or face painting, which provides a space for parents to chill out. When the kids are playing, that’s when we can talk to the parents and have those deeper conversations that we never expected to have at Kendal Calling.
“Visitors will be able to send a postcard too for a donation – every evening we’ll put them in the postbox. Hopefully their loved ones will receive them before they get home.
“Apparently postcards are a bit retro these days, but people loved the idea last year.”
It helps to spread the North West Air Ambulance Charity message even further. Steph continues: “Forty-two per cent of people surveyed are still unaware that we are a charity so there is still work to do. Awareness is quite strong in Cumbria.”
Rachel Foy, the charity’s PR officer, adds: “Kendal Calling really helps us. It’s such a friendly environment that it’s really easy to share the message, and word of mouth is the best way to spread it beyond the festival.”
HOSPICE AT HOME
Whatever the weather at Kendal Calling, the team from Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland brings the sunshine.
Its ‘Sunflower Team’ of smiling staff and volunteers walks the fields with washing baskets full of sunflower merchandise, the bright yellow flower being a nationally recognised symbol of hospice care.
Since Julie Blundell, head of income generation and marketing for the charity, established the connection with Kendal Calling in 2011 and being a beneficiary of the festival has helped Hospice at Home raise £121,000 in donations.
“I had always gone to festivals and I knew the Mountbatten Isle of Wight Hospice had done festival fundraising through the hospice sunflower and that was in the back of my mind as a really lovely way to raise money and connect with festivalgoers,” Julie explains.
“When we got the news that Kendal Calling was moving to Lowther and I contacted the organisers Ben [Robinson] and Andy [Smith]. I noticed they also used sunflowers on all their branding and with it also being the symbol of the hospice movement it seemed a brilliant coincidence.
“At the time they were looking for local charities to support and they loved the idea that us selling sunflowers was going to raise vital funds for the community and help us provide hour upon hour of care and comfort to patients with a life limiting illness whilst supporting families and carers in their homes.”
The Hospice at Home service covers 1,500 square miles from the Scottish border to Stainmore, from Allonby across to Alston. It needs to raise around £1.8million each year.
In the first year, they raised £2,500 and every year since then support has increased, as has the number of volunteers which now numbers a team of 20 with two staff.
“We have lots of different volunteers. Quite a few have lost family members and want to give something back and some are corporate volunteers whose employers allow them time to support charities in the local community,” explains Julie, who last year clocked up 62 miles walking the fields.
Over the years thousands of festivalgoers have supported the appeal and bought vibrant sunflowers to add to their clothing, hats, tents and camper vans. As people buy from the volunteers, they often share stories of how Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland, or another hospice, has helped their family members or friends.
Julie adds: “Even when the festival had to be cancelled because of Covid, the organisers still made a donation from the unique t-shirts they were selling online, which was amazing.
Last year was their best ever year raising £19,000 which has gone back into the community enabling nurses, carers, councillors and specialists to provide ‘local care for local people’.
Julie adds: “We were overwhelmed with last year’s record-breaking figure. We are very conscious that people are having to be cautious with their money at present which is why it is so humbling that we had such a fantastic year generating such amazing funds and awareness at Kendal Calling.
“To look across the crowds and see a sea of sunflowers was extremely heartwarming. The support shown in the fields was, as ever, inspiring.
“Everyone is upbeat and our volunteers are really inspirational. They work so hard and we want to thank each and every one of them for their dedication. They go out in twos with their washing baskets and help make sure festivalgoers are adding our sunflowers to their hats, clothes, camper vans and tents, while at the same time raising awareness of Hospice at Home.
“We know from talking to people that not every area has a service like ours, so people are really interested to hear about what we have in Cumbria and how we look after patients and families in our rural communities.
“We would also like to thank the Kendal Calling team for continuing to support local hospice care in the home since 2011. We’re able to raise a huge amount and it’s now a really vital fundraising event for the charity that we absolutely rely on so we’re really grateful for it. But it’s also about the chance to open up conversations with festivalgoers about the importance of hospice care.
“We’ve got all sorts of new sunflower merchandise this year so I hope thousands of people will support us once again.”
Anyone interested in raising funds, becoming a business partner or volunteering can contact the Hospice at Home fundraising office 01768 210719 or visit hospiceathome.co.uk
kendalcalling.co.uk/information/charity
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