Standon Calling is an annual music festival held near the village of
Standon, Hertfordshire
Standon is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish includes the adjoining village of Puckeridge. The village church of St Mary has Saxon origins with much Victorian restoration. It contains the ornate tomb of the Tudor ...
, United Kingdom, in the grounds of private residence Standon Lordship. It is a themed boutique festival which grew from a birthday barbecue into an annual public event.
History
The festival began as a birthday barbecue for founder Alex Trenchard in 2001. It became a live music event in 2004, with a single stage on the same site with a one-day line-up.
In 2005, a second stage was built in an adjacent field; after the final act, organiser Trenchard announced to visitors "Don't go to bed!". Performers dressed as fairies, who were hidden in the crowd, threw off their cloaks and led the festival-goers to a surprise all-night party.
The festival expanded to two days in 2006 with a full-size main stage.
2007 saw a Rio Carnival theme and the blossoming of another festival tradition, fancy dress on Saturday. Headliners were
The Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips are an English band from Tavistock, Devon. The 4-piece line-up of Charlie Waller, Henry Clark, Tom Gorbutt & Keith Lunnon was present from the first recordings until late 2006 when Sam Mansbridge joined to fill out the sound ...
,
New Young Pony Club
NYPC (also known as New Young Pony Club) are an English electronic music band from London. The band was formed by Andy Spence and Tahita Bulmer in 2004. Their influences are predominantly post-punk and new wave artists.
Career Forming and sig ...
,
Noisettes
Noisettes are an English indie rock band from London, currently composed of singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa and guitarist Dan Smith. The band first achieved commercial success and nationwide recognition with the second single of their seco ...
and
Mr Hudson & The Library.
Friendly Fires
Friendly Fires are an English indie rock band from St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. They are currently signed to XL Recordings. Their self-titled debut album was released on 1 September 2008, and was announced as one of the shortlisted twelv ...
also played the main stage on Saturday afternoon.
In 2008 the festival expanded to three full days, with the
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys (lead vocals, guitar), Huw Bunford (lead guitar, vocals), Guto Pryce (bass guitar), Cian Ciaran ...
closing the main stage. Other acts included
Florence & The Machine
Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band that formed in London in 2007, consisting of lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, harpist Tom Monger, and ...
,
The Maccabees,
Glasvegas
Glasvegas are a Scottish indie rock band from Glasgow. The band consists of James Allan (vocals), Rab Allan (lead guitar) and Paul Donoghue (bass guitar), with Swedish drummer Jonna Löfgren joining the group in 2010 until her departure in 2020 ...
,
Late Of The Pier
Late of the Pier was an English four-piece dance-punk band from Castle Donington, England, signed to Parlophone. Their debut album ''Fantasy Black Channel'', produced by Erol Alkan was released on 11 August 2008 by Parlophone.
History Forma ...
, and
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip.
The theme was Japanese culture, with outfits varying from
Harajuku
is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 chōme to 4 chōme. In popular refer ...
girls to
Wasabi peas
Wasabi (Japanese language, Japanese: , , or , ; ''Eutrema japonicum'' or ''Wasabia japonica'') or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and Mustard plant, mustard in other genus, genera. The ...
. Japanese acts included Melt Banana, Acid Mother's Temple and Cosmic Inferno, while activities included calligraphy demonstrations, tea tastings and binocular football.
There was even an underwater disco, which won Standon Calling the Innovation Award at 2008's UK Festival Awards.
In 2009 the theme was "Space", commemorating the 40th anniversary of the
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
Moon landings. The festival site was duly decorated with props including a
Tardis
The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior ap ...
from cult BBC sci-fi serial ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' and the DeLorean time machine from the ''
Back to the Future
''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, ...
'' film trilogy. There were several space-related events, including two evening presentations by space expert Jerry Stone of Spaceflight UK.
2010 saw Standon Calling grow, both in terms of space and ticket sales. Themed around "Murder On The Standon Express", a miniature town with boutique stores, food stands and a fancy dress shop was built on the site.
The festival spread from Standon Lordship onto neighbouring fields with additional car parking and camping. Coach travel provided from local train stations. The pre-festival marketing included a series of "Road to Standon Calling" gigs in London and a competition for smaller upcoming bands to play the main stage on the Sunday night.
2011's theme was 'Gods and Monsters' with Lamb and Battles headlining.
2012's theme 'Journey to the end of the earth' saw headliners Fat Freddies Drop, Beardy Man and Death in Vegas.
2013's theme of 'Running away from the circus' included bands Bastille, Digitalism, The Joy Formidable, De La Soul and Band of Skulls.
2014 had a "Lost in Latin America" theme with headliners Frank Turner, Maximo Park and Public Enemy. Clean Bandit,
Charli XCX
Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is an English singer and songwriter. Born in Cambridge and raised in Start Hill, Essex, she began posting songs on Myspace in 2008, which led to her discovery ...
, Ella Eyre and Young Fathers were other notable names on the lineup.
Standon Calling 2015
Celebrating its 10th birthday, Standon Calling was bigger and better than ever before, increasing its capacity to 10,000. The theme was "A town of two faces", encouraging cowboy/girl costumes by day and by night the festival took a futuristic turn seeing a variety of disco themed costumes. Disco tribute band Uncle Funk & The Boogie Wonderband opened the main stage.
Headlining the festival were
Little Dragon
Little Dragon are a Swedish electronic music band from Gothenburg, Sweden, formed in 1996. The band consists of Yukimi Nagano (vocals, percussion), Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Wallin (bass) and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards).
Little Dragon's ...
,
The Dandy Warhols
The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1994 by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström. They were later joined by keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford ...
and
Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene ...
with other acts such as
Ella Eyre
Ella McMahon (born 1 April 1994), known professionally as Ella Eyre, is a British singer and songwriter. She is known for her collaborations with Rudimental on their UK number-one single "Waiting All Night" (2013), which won the 2014 Brit Awar ...
,
Slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and
Kwabs
Kwabena Sarkodee Adjepong (born 24 April 1990), better known by his stage name Kwabs, is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known for his international hit "Walk".
Early life
Born in London, Kwabs was raised in Bermondsey, Southwark ...
filling the bill.
Standon Calling 2020
In common with all UK festivals, Standon Calling 2020 was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, with tickets being refunded or rolled over to the following year.
Conviction
In February 2011, founder Alex Trenchard received a 30-month sentence for defrauding his employer Tesco of £355,000, which he used to fund the event using his company credit card. This followed losses on ticket sales during the 2008 and 2009 events.
Trenchard was released after 10 months.
References
External links
{{Commons category
Festival website
Music festivals in Hertfordshire
Recurring events established in 2001
2001 establishments in England
Annual events in the United Kingdom
Indie rock festivals