Lincoln's Call of the Wild festival was worth the wait

Spalding Guardian reporter Kat Wakefield reviews Call of the Wild Festival at Lincolnshire Showground.

Attending a festival with a line-up crammed full of bands I love was never going to be a chore.

As a massive music fan, one of the hardest parts of the pandemic has been not being able to stand in the middle of a field (or arena) while singing my heart out.

However, Call of the Wild gave me that opportunity and then some.

Due to “work commitments”, I was sadly only about to attend one day of the four day event but I certainly wasn’t left disappointed.

The sun shone down on us as incredible acts such as Mother Vulture and Vega took to the stage over the afternoon.

The festival has a genius set up with two stages - the Kilmister Stage and the Southall Lawless Stage - stood next to each other plus the Dead Skull Stage tent just around the corner. There’s never really a minute of peace, thankfully, with new bands taking to every stage almost straight after the one before.

Highlights for me included Shiraz Lane from Finland who were absolutely brilliant. They ended their set with their version of To The Moon and Back by Savage Garden which I would argue is better than the original.

Scottish rockers She Burns Red absolutely stormed their set with a crowd full of bouncing fans. Kilt-wearing frontman James McCulloch admitted during the set he was feeling ‘a little bit emotional’ at the crowd’s reaction.

Fresh off the back of their UK tour with She Burns Red, US rockers Kickin Valentina had the crowd in their palm of their hands from the get-go. Their dirty, sleazy sound was so exciting and the already buzzing audience took it up a level.

Other highlights included country metal band Bootyard Bandits and pyro-mad The Midnight Men. Finish rockers Reckless Love and Swedish stars Crash Diet brought the day to an unbelievably electric close.

If you’re a rock fan and missed this year’s festival you absolutely need to book tickets for next year’s offering.