REVIEW: Kashmir Fringe Day Two - 8.2.26
The three rules of good things: you can't have enough of them, they come in threes, and they always come to a sudden end.
And so to the second and final day of entertainment across three bustling stages at Quay Arts, with a Lord's Day programme every bit as dynamic and diverse as yesterday's. The Sunday schedule had a couple of visitors from the North Island to go as sides with our chilli dogs and caramel-y beer, as exemplified by the strong-couteur of Deep Red in the Theatre stage. This deep-thinking three-piece brought a colour co-ordinated richness to the day (you can guess which colour), with four-part concept tunes about life cycles wrapped in delicate guitarwork, a chorus pedal for the bass and a meaty female voice that had more than an echo of a Sinead or Patti to it. Great.
Over in the acoustic box-room, Tom Francis Turner boomed his vocal dissent for the less fulfilling aspects of working life before dramatically cutting short a "sad" song for being too sad. At least I think that's what was happening.
Cafe-wise, it was up to Doggett to bring the late-seventies New Wave vibes to the room, with a short but spiky set of SLF-sounding tunes which did the job nicely.
Panda Swim, topping the Theatre bill, found Joe, Guy and Stu together on the same stage for possibly the very first time. Nobody within earshot could quite remember whether the ever-revolving door of Panda rhythm sections had ever actually had these three founders together anywhere other than on the credits of that first 10" EP. One day there'll be a Pete Frame style family tree... and what a web that will weave.
Finally, Kindred Found brought the all-dancin' rock'n'country party to a close with a swaggering 45 minute set of slide, mandolin, moonshine, gravel'n'treacle vocals and Laura Ashley jackets (of all things). You can trust a Kashmir event to be kaleidoscopic.
Outside, Isle of Wight Council party poopers were grimly shoving parking tickets onto nearby car windscreens under cover of darkness. But neither they nor the rain nor the broken roads could dampen the mood. Kashmir Fringe 2026 had been the roaring success we always knew it was going to be.