Posted by It’s now only one week until the annual Kendal Mountain Festival. CGR will be there to enjoy a great range of films, speakers and partying. So what’s on offer at this year’s event?
‘Kendal’ is the biggest event of its type in the world and it’s the main social event for outdoor enthusiasts in the UK. As ever there’ll be hundreds of film screenings including high-profile premieres plus loads of speakers and special guests making this a must-do long weekend in the Lake District.
Kendal Mountain Festival is stepping up a gear this year with the involvement of Channel 4, which is collaborating in the creation of a new film competition for ‘short form’ films.
The KMF Short Film Competition aims to encourage and promote creative outdoor filmmaking. Winning films gain both prize money and significant exposure; Channel 4 has revitalised its short-film TV series The Shooting Gallery, and later this year a special edition will feature Kendal Mountain Festival with nominees and winners gaining the potential opportunity for their films to be broadcast.
Kendal’s main film programme is now live and can be viewed here, but there will be two big premieres– the Hotaches Productions film Distilled (which, we are reliably informed, involves mountaineer Andy Cave and whisky), and Alastair Lee’s much-anticipated spectacular Antarctica film The Great Last Climb. Which undoubtedly involves whisky too.
Speakers at the Festival this year include US alpine hot-shot Kelly Cordes, top British climber James McHaffie and Everest man-of-the-moment Kenton Cool. Top women climbers are well represented with Shauna Coxsey, Lucy Creamer, Mina Leslie-Wujastyk and Spanish big-wall soloist Silvia Vidal. It’s not all about climbing with ultra-athlete Jez Bragg, pro kayaker and National Geographic Adventurer Of The Year Erik Boomer, World Cup-winning downhill biker Steve Peat and ace French skier Vivian Bruchez all on the speaker roster. Plus this year there’s a new Underground Session; calling all cavers…
Together with the art exhibitions, literature, the RAB Party plus the Boardman Tasker literary prize, it promises to be another unmissable year.
Dates are 14-17 November – news as it happens at mountainfest.co.uk
You can purchase tickets for the event here.
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