Kendal Calling draws to an epic close with Gary Neville DJ set, Lottery Winners and Barrioke

The fourth and final day at Lowther Deer Park

Tim Burgess and Gary Neville at Kendal Calling 2024

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 6th Aug 2024
Last updated 6th Aug 2024

Kendal Calling 2024 ended on a high on Sunday with a glut of phenomenal music, including Gary Neville’s back-to-back DJ set with our very own Tim Burgess, plus fellow Absolute Radio presenter Dan Noble singing with Barry from Eastenders.

Fully embracing the High Seas fancy dress theme this year, the fields of Lowther Deer Park were awash with thousands dressed up as a variety of sea creatures, pirates and other eye-popping nautical delights.

Our first band of the day were firm Kendal Calling institutions The Lancashire Hotpots, who, in keeping with their revered status in this part of the world, performed to a humungous main stage audience.

For the uninitiated, the comedy-folk outfit fuse truly hilarious lyrics about the everyday with toe-tapping music. Highlights include seminal classic ‘Egg, Sausage, Chips and Beans’, ‘A Lancashire DJ’ - which morphed into drum and bass realms – and life-affirming set-closer ‘Chippy Tea.’

The Kendal Calling Sunday parade

After a quick dash over to the Parklands tent, we were just in time to catch the end of Barry from Eastenders’ legendary Barrioke.

The hour-long karaoke session culminated with Absolute Radio’s Dan Noble taking to the mic alongside Barry to sing Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ while throwing a Liam Gallagher pose (yeah, we know Noel sang it), prompting easily the biggest singalong of the afternoon.

Barry from Eastenders with Dan Noble

Over at the Oktoberfest tent, The German Ooompah Band performing their 11th set of the weekend (a 12th was scheduled for later) proved to be another dizzying zenith of the day.

Tackling pop anthems like Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ and Carly Rae Jepson’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ alongside traditional tunes like ‘The Happy Wanderer’ in their Bavarian style, the tent was positively bouncing with people dancing on the tables.

The hysterical sight of someone in a seagull costume chasing a man dressed as a lobster in front of the Oktoberfest stage during the set will firmly be engrained in our memory.

Feeder at Kendal Calling 2024

On the main stage, Feeder got off to a flyer with a cavalcade of anthems like ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Feeling a Moment’, but we headed over to Parklands for Gary Neville’s first ever DJ set, back-to-back with Tim Burgess.

Performing to a packed tent that was at least 20 deep outside, Gary and Tim played anthems including Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’, Courteeners’ ‘Not Nineteen Forever’, The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’ and The Stone Roses’ ‘Sally Cinnamon.’

Flaunting his football skills, Gary even took the time to head an inflatable beachball that bounced onto the stage.

Tim Burgess and Gary Neville at Kendal Calling 2024

“Gary Neville just supported us, how weird is that?!” shouted frontman Thom Rylance as Lottery Winners took to the stage immediately afterwards.

Lottery Winners were thwarted by a broken down van on the way to Kendal, but thankfully made it to perform their superb set that even included covers of The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’, Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’ and The Streets’ ‘Fit But Don’t You Know It.’

Sublime stuff as always, and we wouldn’t bet against Lottery Winners climbing even further up the Kendal Calling bill in the future.

Paolo Nutini was charged with bringing Kendal Calling 2024 to an emphatic close, and he did thanks to ‘Jenny Don’t Be Hasty’, ‘New Shoes’ and set-closer ‘Shine a Light’ that preceded the traditional Kendal fireworks finale.

Kendal Calling fireworks finale

Kendal Calling celebrates its 20th birthday in 2025, and, if this year is anything to go by, the anniversary extravaganza promises to be very special indeed.