Review: Call Of The Wild Festival 2026

Lincolnshire Showground – May 29^th– 31^st, 2026

Reviewer – Paul Dubbelman

Photographers – Paul Saripo, Paul Dubbelman & Dan Mann

I have, for many years, been deeply embedded in the grassroots UK Blues scene, but while my heart bleeds blues, my soul and my spine craves rock (perhaps with a bit of Roll in the mix). Having heard a lot of good things about Call Of The Wild – the bands, the community, the organisation, I was thrilled to be able to attend this year. Looking at the 2026 line-up, I counted seven bands out of the 54 listed that I had seen or had heard in the past, so this was very much a voyage into the unknown. It was with a degree of trepidation that I arrived Friday afternoon and was met with my first smiles of the weekend as the gate volunteers checked me in, sorted out wristbands, and a place to park up. Having settled myself in, I took my first steps into the festival proper. The first thing to hit me was how compact the arena was, Two large stages side-by-side, another stage in the bar tent, a good range of food and other stalls to browse, even an on site tattooist. Making a very necessary stop at the bar it was good to see beer at sensible prices and plenty of bar staff all eager to serve. Suitably refreshed it was time to explore the music.

Now, like the Blues, Rock comes in many guises, and it became obvious very quickly that my taste lies at the softer end of the Hard Rock category. Certainly, some of the heavier bands were simply too heavy for my tastes but visually stimulating with plenty of pyrotechnics, confetti and streamers going off throughout the weekend. I had already pencilled in Florence Black as a must see, and as Friday night headliners, they were not going to be missed. Their set of Grunge-filled melodic rock was just what I needed after a long day and are definitely a band to watch. With so many unknowns across the three days, it is easy to get confused about who did what when but there were a fair few bands that definitely stuck in the memory. Silveroller were definitely in that memorable category – A relatively new band knocking out melodic rock with a 70s vibe (think Bad Company style)  with a very charismatic front man in Jonnie Hodson – and a band that have the potential to go far. At the other end of the timeline, Wolfsbane have been around for forty years and recently played their first show at The 100 Club. With that history, it was no surprise that they had the crowd singing along to many of their songs. Aussie band Wicked Smile brought their brand of melodic hard rock to the party and got spines mixing and fists pumping. My Favourite band of the weekend though has to be Fireheart, with their Hard Rock anthems moving the body and their message “Good (is good Enough)” moving hearts. Having Cassidy Paris guest on ‘Nothing Left To Lose‘ was an added bonus.

With so many new-to-me bands, the whole of the Call Of The Wild festival was a fantastic assault on my senses, but my abiding memory of the weekend was the friendliness of everyone there, the stamina of the volunteers, the security team and first aid team, and the behind-the-scenes effort of the Upstaged team that organised the whole shebang. Without doubt Call Of The Wild has to be one of the best festivals around.

Band photos for each day are on seperate posts.

©All photographs are copyright of Dan Mann – RPR Photography, Paul Dubbelman – Dubbelexposure & Paul Saripo – Paul Saripo Photography. They may not be altered or used without express permission.