Calling Festival

Updated on Jan 06, 2024

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Nominations UK Festival Award for Best Major Festival Similar Kendal Calling, Wireless Festival, Isle of Wight Festival, T in the Park, British Summer Time Profiles Facebook YouTube Twitter

Boston calling festival montage

Calling Festival (formerly Hyde Park Calling and Hard Rock Calling) is an annual music festival, formerly held in Hyde Park, London, from 2006 until 2012, and from 2013 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The music played is primarily rock music, and various performers, including The Killers, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters (with Nick Mason), The Police, Aerosmith, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen have played at the event. The festival was organised by Hard Rock Cafe and Live Nation. In September 2013, Hard Rock International announced that they would no longer be sponsoring the festival, however Livenation confirmed that the event would return in 2014 under the name of Calling Festival at the Clapham Common.

Hyde Park Calling 2006

The inaugural festival had two stages, and was headlined by Roger Waters (performing in its entirety the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon as part of his set) and his band (featuring Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason) on the Saturday and The Who on the Sunday. Gates opened at 14:00 and the show ended at 22:15 on both evenings. The Who's Sunday headline performance was released as part of their Encore Series 2006 of CDs & DVDs.

The festival was a peaceful one, being inside the city the event required attendees to rely on external accommodation - unlike more popular festivals such as Download Festival or Reading and Leeds Festival, which require camping on site for most people.

Despite the veteran status of the headline acts, most other bands were younger and with a more 'contemporary' audience, providing a contrast in musical styles. Since this festival, Razorlight particularly has acquired much fame and in under a year has gone from second slot in a smaller inaugural event like Hyde Park Calling to headlining the long-running and respected Reading/Leeds Festival. The festival mainstage proved to be unusually British, with the British Isles being represented by seven English bands and two Scottish, with only one American and one New Zealand band from abroad. However of the ten second stage bands, three were from Canada and two from the USA.

Hyde Park Calling 2007

After Hyde Park Calling's success, a Hyde Park Calling 2007 quickly entered planning stages. It was announced that the event would take place during the weekend of 23–24 June 2007. It was Aerosmith's first concert in the United Kingdom for 8 years, and featured Peter Gabriel and the recently reformed Crowded House as a joint-headliner for the first day. Other draws to this year's event were the addition of a new third stage. Only one band to have played at the previous Hyde Park Calling, Rose Hill Drive, played again in 2007. With six bands per stage instead of five, and an extra stage, the expansion of the festival only a year after its inception was dramatic.

One of the many incarnations of the Buena Vista Social Club featured. Hyde Park Calling 2007's version of the band includes Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal (trumpet), Orlando "Cachaito" López (double bass), Manuel Galbán (guitar) and Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos (trumpet). Unlike the previous years' mostly British mainstage, of the nine bands playing, three were American, one from New Zealand and one from Australia.

Sunday became an "Aerosmith Family" event. Aerosmith headlined the mainstage, with it opened by The Micki Free Electric Blues then Arckid - a band featuring Steve Tyler (vocalist of Aerosmith)'s son in law. Chris Cornell played the main stage before Aerosmith made their appearance. TAB the Band, played fourth on the bill on second stage featuring Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry's two sons. Many people saw the event as unbalanced, with most commercially successful bands playing the Sunday (Aerosmith in particular - having sold more albums than both of Saturday's headline bands combined). The second stage was sponsored by Pepsi.

Despite Aerosmith having the headline slot on Sunday, Chris Cornell played for the same length of time. His set combined Audioslave and Soundgarden songs with his own. In keeping with the family theme Aerosmith brought with them, on Saturday Peter Gabriel's daughter sang and played percussion. On Sunday Cornell brought his two children onto the stage for the audience to see.

Aerosmith had to finish at 10.30 pm due to the curfew, and the police were forcing them to leave. The encore was the usual Walk this Way song, but featured Darryl McDaniels (commonly referred to simply as 'DMC'). This was the first time a member of Run-D.M.C. had performed with Aerosmith since their 2002 tour, five years previous.

Hard Rock Calling 2008

In late December 2007, the Hyde Park Calling 2008 website was launched. It confirmed the dates for 28–29 June 2008.

On 28 January 2008, the headliners for each day were announced, along with 2 support acts for each day:

Hard Rock Calling 2009

In 2009, for the first time it was a three-day event, beginning on the Friday rather than a Saturday, running over 26, 27 and 28 June. Neil Young headlined on Saturday and his encore was a cover version of "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles. Paul McCartney joined him on stage for parts of this performance. Bruce Springsteen finished his headlining set with "Dancing in the Dark", while he also joined The Gaslight Anthem for their song "The '59 Sound". Springsteen's entire set was released on DVD in June 2010, titled London Calling: Live in Hyde Park.

Hard Rock Calling 2010

Hard Rock Calling 2010 took place of the weekend beginning 25 June. Wolfmother was scheduled to perform on Friday but backed out in advance.

Hard Rock Calling 2011

The 2011 festival took place over the weekend of 24–26 June.

Hard Rock Calling 2012

During the song "Twist and Shout", which was being performed by Bruce Springsteen and guest Paul McCartney at the Saturday night show, Springsteen was forced to cut his set short when he ran overtime on a council curfew.

Hard Rock Calling 2013

The 2013 event was moved to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford after Live Nation had pulled out of the tender for Hyde Park. The 2013 festival returned to being a two-day event, unlike the four previous years which had run over three consecutive days. The first announcement was made on 5 March, when Kasabian and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were confirmed as headliners. It would be the latter's second headline performance in consecutive years.