Kendal Calling reveals fancy dress theme and new festival areas

Eclectic Lake District festival Kendal Calling have revealed that this year’s fancy dress theme will be ‘Beasts and Machines’.

In case, like us, you’ve no idea what that means, organisers explain the theme as ‘woodland creatures turning intergalactic’, with wild animals meeting infernal machines.

More acts have also been added to the bill, with the latest additions including Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Tom Williams and The Boat, Sophie Barker (Zero 7), Liz Lawrence, Gabrielle Aplin, Dimbleby and Capper who will all play in the Get Loud in Libraries Stage.

The Library massive will host live music on the Friday and be open for books, tea, cake and Rockanory (bedtime stories read by rock stars of course).

The Riot Jazz stage is also back bigger than ever, with a celebration of Victorian mayhem and the finest selection of world music. Riot Jazz Stage will feature the inhouse Riot Jazz Brass Band, Extra Love, Paper Tiger and Rastamau5 to name just some of the round-the-clock live acts.

Decorated out like a big front room, The Soapbox Stage returns bigger and better this year and is home to comedy, DJs and storytelling and features a headline set from Mr B The Gentlemen Rhymer, Tim Burgess DJ set, Dave Haslam, poet laureate Marvin Cheeseman, George McKay, Dicky Dippinson, hilarious country band Bushpig, The Sky Muffins, Skint & Demoralised, Witch and the Robot, Craig West, Robin Walker, Karl Yates and Hat Club DJs. There will be poetry each afternoon from the likes of Mike Garry and Chris Jam before dusk descends for some live burlesque.

Soapbox comedy comes from the likes of Mitchy Benn, Silky, Jim Smallman and Barry Dodds. Not to mention Gary Delaney, Danny McLoughlin, Chris Turner, Martin Mor.

Hip Hop Houseparty Saturday features beatboxer Jack Bee, DJ Helz, Oldboy, Taste the Diff’rence, Pogo and games Pimp My Ride, Hip Hop photobooth, and Hip Hop wheel of fortune.

Also new for 2011 is the Monstrous Garden. Enter a world where the green things take on a new life, and things in the undergrowth are not always what they first seem... Fireflies come to life at nightfall, and strange animals prowl around high above. Come dressed as an ugly bug and join the parade of the weird and wonderful creatures. Monstrous Garden hosts the Kaylied Stage, where artists from the worldwide underground scene bring their eclectic musical vision to the Lake District.

Spiced daily with some serious funk and soul, the Monstrous Garden is one of the best alternative areas of the festival. Rock up on Saturday for an Ugly Bug Hoe Down with Cut a Shine, the most dynamic barn dance band on the planet.

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