This year festival goers at Kendal Calling have helped raise over £15,500 for charity, exceeding the incredible £10,000 raised for charity in 2011. The funds will be split between the festival’s chosen charities, many of which have been handpicked by the Kendal Calling team for personal reasons. The charities are Great Ormond Street Hospital, Guide Dogs for the Blind, the David Lynch Foundation, North West Air Ambulance and local charities Hospice at Home, Penrith Lions and TASCA project , which is based in Lowther village where the festival is held.
This year the festival saw the return of Hospice at Home who came stocked up with their stunning sunflowers. Distributing over 2,300 sunflowers, festival goers quickly added to the already magical site art with the bright flowers popping up on tents, children’s carts and all over festival attendee’s attire! Spreading like wildflowers, the sunflowers have become a festival icon and are even incorporated in the Kendal Calling logo!
Another of the fundraising ventures that became a festival favourite was Tim Peak’s diner. New to the festival for 2012, the diner was the brain child of The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess and his cyber vision became a reality for the first time at Kendal Calling. Open throughout the weekend the diner was a constant hive of activity, treating customers to impromptu performances from musical legends such as Edwyn Collins, as well as serving up the eagerly anticipated Totes Amazeballs cereal, which was created exclusively for Kendal Calling. The diner raised an almighty £1,500 for the David Lynch Foundation, which is, well, totes amazeballs!
Kendal Calling are blown away by the generosity of their amazing crowd who over the past 3 years have raised a staggering £35,000 for charity, a vast amount of which has been donated to the local communities and has helped thousands of people and numerous worthy charities continue providing their vital services. One of the local charities that Kendal Calling has supported for the past few years is the Penrith Lions. The Penrith Lions are a purely volunteer led organisation that help local families in distress, take senior citizens on outings and to concerts and provide opportunities for young people to better themselves.
Peter Goodwin from the Penrith Lions, says…
Our Motto is ‘We Serve’, one of the prime objectives of this service is:
‘To take an active role in the Civic, Cultural, Social and Moral Welfare of the community we live in’
Kendal Calling’s generous donation enables us to reach these targets and on behalf all organisations, clubs and individuals both young and not so young who will benefit from this generosity. We offer a big ‘Thank You’ and wish you all every success for the future.
Ben Robinson – Co-founder and co-director of Kendal Calling
“We are honoured to be able to support these hardworking causes that directly benefit the local area. Having grown up in Cumbria our team hold these charities and the people they help out very close to our hearts. We’d like to say a huge thank-you to all the festival-goers who contributed to this year’s fund-raising, you’ve done us proud!”
Plans are already underway for the festival in 2013 that will take place on the 26th-28th July. To keep up to date with all Kendal Calling news sign up to the newsletter at www.kendalcalling.com, become a fan on facebook and follow the festival on twitter @KendalCalling.
The festival looks forward to being back in the fields in 2013 and hopes to see the generous Kendal Calling festival goers smash their fundraising target yet again!
