BILLED as the biggest live music event Cumbria has ever seen, the 10th anniversary Kendal Calling delivered on its promise. 

The festival, expanded to four days for the first time, saw around 25,000 people lap up the strongest line-up of bands and artists in its history. 

Highly-rated indie band Sunset Sons kicked it all off on Thursday afternoon, walking onto the Main Stage in front of an empty field to be greeted swiftly by hordes of music fans running through the Lowther Deer Park site. 

The festival effectively had five headline acts, with James wrapping up the Thursday proceedings, followed by The Vaccines on the Friday, and Elbow on Saturday, before both Kaiser Chiefs and Snoop Dogg made appearances last night. 

Returning headliners James were naturally the biggest draw on day one, entertaining a packed main arena of youngsters probably too young to remember the band's 90s Britpop heyday, and older fans who probably remember their 2012 appearance at Kendal Calling. Friday saw the full 300-acre site opened for the first time, with more stages than ever before. 

Up-and-coming indie outfits Augustines and Temples shared the Main Stage with time-honoured favourites The Levellers and Soul II Soul, before the arrival of the UK's most talked about band in 2015, The Vaccines. 

The Londoners were the perfect fit for the festival, which is now moving into the realm of mainstream recognition, playing a mix of material from across their three albums. 

The second-half of the festival was welcomed in by some fine weather throughout Saturday. Currently the North West's best exponents of indie, Elbow effectively brought the house down with their headline slot on the Main Stage.

Frontman Guy Garvey also managed a pretty spectacular header on an inflatable beach ball to set the tone of the evening. 

Mixing some fan favourites, such as One Day Like This and Grounds For Divorce, with some lesser-heard newer tracks, they fitted in well with the alternative feel of acts such as psychedelic rockers The Horrors, and the band called in as late replacements for Kodaline in the second headline slot - Super Furry Animals probably caught a lot of people off-guard. 

British Sea Power played the first-ever Kendal Calling in 2006, and they were back once more, this time in the intimate surroundings of the Woodlands stage - competing in the same time slot as Elbow, but still managing to pack in the punters. 

Yesterday began with speculation about Snoop Dogg's appearance, with news circulating that he'd been held up in Italy and had more than £200,000 seized. He made it in time – although a fashionable 20 minutes late on stage – to give a performance that most people had been talking about since the line-up was first announced back in spring.

Kaiser Chiefs were a stark contrast in the billed headline slot, but most people stuck around to watch them too, as they gave a lesson in arena showmanship and a strong set of their greatest pop rock anthems. 

A benchmark has been set, with Kendal Calling only set to grow from here.