Lowther Deer Park, Hackthorpe, CA10 2HN…read more Warning this a lengthy review - hope it has some useful information. Just spent a lovely weekend at Kendal Calling. A small (8 thousand) independent festival in a great location on the edge of the Lake District. A great time seemed to be had by all and we left the site on Monday afternoon having drunk deeply at the well (and the bar!) but feeling strangely rested and well fed!! Long drive back to Nunhead but no pain no gain. All credit to the organisers who put together a really beautiful well run site, which was kept on an even keel by a polite but efficient security team who appeared to have some sense of how to keep everyone happy and safe. Music - headliners on the Saturday The Doves played an epic set which was a joy to behold. Calvin Harris and The Coral were less successful. The Badly Drawn Boy played a blinder on the Sunday afternoon and you could feel the collective goose bumps ripple through the crowd when he brought his daughter on for a duet. As ever much of the best stuff was to be found in the smaller tents. Crossiant Neuf hosted the Kaylied tent which had a good rotation of folky, rootsy type acts during the day and a more ska, funk and house vibe in the evening. Ideally located next to the pub!! The Glow tent was the main dance area but on the few occasions I visited seemed a bit dull and lacking in volume. The House Party tent got my vote; properly decked out kitschy front room to chill in during the day and old school house party at night. Dave Haslam's balearic set was highly uplifting and typical of the music policy. A very excited Craig Charles finished the whole thing somewhere around 3 on Monday morning in the Kaylied tent with a good time funk and soul set which had the walls dripping and the crowd raising the roof. Other stuff - plenty of jazz, juggling, karaoke, very amusing and inventive fancy dress, Cumbrian olympics and a bit of theatre, Howard Marks etc, etc. Food and Drink - excellent range of small independent stalls with not a burger van on the whole site. Lovers of Mexican food were particularly well served and the Turkish chicken casserole from Johnny Baghdad was very tasty. Plenty of veggie options too. In general most main dishes were priced around £5-6 and seemed great value coming from London. Plenty of the bog standard festival bars selling Tuborg etc dotted around the site but for beer lovers the place to be was the Holy Quail pub which had an excellent selection of local ale including a Hawkshead Pale which was drinking so well it was gone by Saturday lunchtime. The Hawkshead bitter was a good alternative and was also drinking very well and ran out on the Sunday afternoon. By that time a cheeky vodka and red bull was starting to seem like a good idea anyway!! Camping - it might be small but get there on the Thursday to secure a tasty pitch. Quiet field was lively, friendly and reasonably well spaced out. The main areas were slightly chaotic but seemed to suit those who fancied being up all night. Family area was quiet and worth considering just to be able to get your car on site as it was a long hike to the camping areas. Toilets and showers - must admit I thought the toilets looked inadequate for the crowd but they seemed to be cleaned reasonably often and were still fine on the Monday morning. The thought of freestyling did not seem to enter anyones head. The 6 Eco friendly showers seemed even more inadequate but at £3.50 a go we never queued for more than 10 minutes!! The punters - pretty much all tribes welcome and a very mixed bag with a healthy dose of harmless 17/18 year olds who tended to camp in groups of about 20 and sit around all day and night drinking Fosters. Plenty of 20 to 50's with or without children. All very friendly and many thanks to our neighbours who roasted up a fine joint of lamb for all in the vicinity and passed on a top tip for how to get my car on site on the Monday morning - love those cheeky Northern monkeys.

A great festival, it has a very relaxed feel to it, not as busy as other larger festivals and less…read moreof the ned element ruining it for the rest of the music loving public! The campsite is well organised, and a lot easier to get around and find everything as its small enough to wander around and not get lost! The toilets are very clean (for a festival!) and you can also buy luxury toilet passes, and shower passes which means you have a little extra comfort for the weekend, great if your worried about taking a shower or using a mildly clean toilet. but this is a festival for goodness sake, getting dirty is part of the fun! Inside the arena there is plenty of space, so doesnt feel as if there are too many people crammed in, the weather was not so good the weekend we went but there are many tents etc to shelter from any rain, and when the rain did stop, there were loads of outdoor spaces to sit in the sun. Great festival, with a great crowd and good music policy, you'll go back!

Small but perfectly formed. A wonderful festival! Lots to do, and great variety! An open air cinema…read moretoo :-) This year will be my 3rd time

Excellent for kids…read more Came during Minecraft exhibit, some activities are fee based and may require pre-registration The layout is very interesting ongoing schedule of fairs, exhibitions and cinema multiple cafes and eateries wife thought is only "ok" couldn't get more info out of her than that

Great place to stop whilst travelling along M6 or A66. Has several cafes, we had sunday lunch here…read morea fortnight ago, was a great plateful and for under a tenner! Would recommend. Plenty of space for kids to run around, has indoor softpay and an outdoor play area too. There are several shops inside, food, toys, arty things and a sweet shop. Can happily spend a few hours here. They have functions, such as a beer festival and also do film screenings and have a 3D screen, although not been to a screening yet.

This sports ground is used once a year for the Grasmere Sports and Show The field is literally in…read morethe fork between the A591 and Stock Lane, on your left as you drive from Ambleside. I suggest that you don't walk from Ambleside, unless you've got lots of energy to spare, it's four miles.

This was my first beer festival in Scotland! Was it the best? Well ... it can be better. It was a…read morehell of an experience though (haha)! So I hoped on the bus with my partner to Eagleshem. Takes about 1 hour to get there by bus unfortunately (this is the moment when I wish I had a car in GLasgow ):). When we arrived, there were so many people! Honestly didn't expect the masses! As the partner and I approached the beer area, uh oh ... the grass is practically mud at this point ... ah well lets just jump in haha. Practically ruined my shoes as we stepped foot into the beer area. Despite the weather becoming gloomier and shittier by the minute, I was so happy to see the amount of people who stuck through the cold, wind and rain! Everyone was having fun too, joking about how Scottish this beer festival was. So through, I'll never forget such an experience ;) We managed to try 3 ciders/beers each, before our hands started becoming numb from the cold (missed out on the Yelp gloves too! That would've been helpful to keep mah hands warm). 1 from Frasciscan Well (Red Rebel?), 2 from Thistly Cross Cider (the ginger and whisky ones) for me, and 2 from Franciscan Well (IPA and Stout), 1 from Top Out (Ginger ale) for the partner. Everything I had was delightfully sweet and light in flavour which I much prefer, whereas my partner had the more strong and hardy (manly) beers. The whisky one has got to be my fav! Ciders that are sweet but high in alcohol content are THE BEST. Ohoho. Overall, it was fun indeed. Of course, would've been better with taps aff weather but oh well. Still was a fun and muddy (and challenging) experience regardless! :D

From the owner: Join us on 6th June 2015 for the Eaglesham Beer Festival. The festival kicks off at 11am and will…read morerun until 8pm. Beer wise, we have WEST, Drygate, Fyne Ales, Harviestoun, Franciscan Wells, Loch Ness Brewery. For non-beer lovers we have the amazing Bijou Wine serving up some of the finest wines and prosecco you'll find in stunning champagne flutes - perfect for sipping in the summer sun. We also have the guys from Thistly Cross who are serving up superb, refreshing cider. On the food front we have amazing tastes from around the world courtesy of the Bowl Food Truck, a little spice courtesy of Galloway Chillies, something sweet thanks to the Wee Fudge Company and not forgetting the main event, amazing patties courtesy of the award winning Burger Meats Bun. There will also be a selection of American and German beers courtesy of Whole Foods Giffnock, who will have top notch bar snacks to enjoy along the way. And revellers can enjoy everything in the Whole Foods stretch tent, with seating and tables. In there you'll also find entertainment in the form of live music, pub quizzes and raffles, with top quality prizes donated by our first class producers. Better than that, there will be a beer-pong tournament. There will also be a non-drinking area with games for children, with juice and sweets available too. And for parents looking after kids, we'll have plenty of coffee to keep you on your toes.

This is a lovely old building just by the beach in Troon town centre. I've only been there three…read moretimes and all three times for the Troon/Ayrshire Real Ale Festival (held every October and well worth a visit!) so I can't really comment on how good the place is for concerts, but it's a lovely space. The tiered seating up top looks very comfortable and the stage is a decent size. There's a few smaller halls off the main hall so it would be ideal for weddings and other similar events and celebrations. There's also a Pokemon Gym within battling distance!