KENDAL Mountain Festival is one long awesome adventure from beginning to end, each year reaching fresh peaks and attracting more and more outdoor enthusiasts to its breathtaking four-day gathering.

Offering by far the largest and most varied programme in its 30-plus year history, the 2016 festival will, as ever, feature hundreds of film screenings, including a number of high-profile premieres looking to secure one of the 11 prestigious awards, including the People’s Choice Award as voted by festivalgoers over the weekend.

Guest speakers to accompany the films include Alex Megos, the 20-year-old superstar of modern climbing, Cedar Wright a US climber and filmmaker whose travelled the world making daring first ascents and some of the leading names from the UK and international mountain biking scene at the increasingly popular Bike Night.

And in his Images from Cold Places talk photographer Ben Tibbett will shed some light on the relationship between his creative work, life on the hills as a mountain guide and his current project on the high alpine peaks.

Running from Thursday (November 17) until Sunday, across umpteen venues around Kendal, central to the momentous event will be KMF Basecamp Village filling the grounds of the Brewery Arts Centre for the weekend. Plus, there will be mountain art and photography exhibitions stretching across the Brewery and participating galleries around town.

As part of this year's KMF is an much anticipated exhibition by highly innovative and intrepid Cumbrian artist Derek Eland.

Running in the Brewery's Sugar Store Gallery, it charts Derek's time in April and May at Everest Base Camp.

A former war artist in Afghanistan and life-long mountaineer, Derek is the first artist to spend the entire climbing season working out there. During his high altitude 'residency' he created a confessional style Diary Room at Base Camp and asked everyone there to write down what Everest meant to them and why they were there. He collected hundreds of handwritten stories from climbers, Sherpas, trekkers, icefall doctors, cooks, porters and medical teams. The stories are moving, heart-breaking and emotional and provide some answers to the question: what’s it like to ‘be human’ at Everest Base Camp. Many of those who took part in the project went on to be injured. Some were killed.

The exhibition of a handful of the handwritten stories from Everest Base Camp, together with the Carlisle artist's photographs, provides a snapshot of the project, ahead of a world tour of the complete exhibition, Being Human

at Base Camp which will run at the Gallery at Rheged from April 29, 2017.

Derek will drop into the Brewery's Basecamp on Friday (1pm-2pm) to share some of his most poignant stories from his time spent on Everest.

KMF's celebration of all things mountainous also features on the visual arts front a Live Art Installation by Lowe Alpine, where it invites guests to pay a visit to its secluded #makewintercount Bothy event. Nestled at the Brewery between the wild base camp and the roaring VATS bar, The Bothy will offer refuge, while still being in the heart of the action.

Inside The Bothy, Lowe Alpine will host an incredible live art installation with renowned British artist Tessa Lyons. Each visitor will be asked to make a pledge to try something new this winter, which Tessa will creatively interpret onto a huge canvas, creating a magnificent piece of art, built from the aspirations of the festival.

Also joining this year's fantastic festival is Kendal’s dynamic creative hub The Factory, at Aynam Road. Artists with personal views of mountain landscape bring their various experiences as climber, guide, rescuer and walker to their art work in a selling exhibition of photography, paintings and prints. Showing work in Artspace will be by Dave Cuthbertson, Joy Grindrod, David Penn, Pam Williamson and Jo Vincent.

As for music, on Friday, from 7pm-8pm, the silky smooth vocals and glorious guitar of Northern Sky take centre stage at Basecamp, and later Friday night from 10pm, Ruskins hosts Soul Clap! featuring Sharke Le Funk , Lunchbox Athlete and Nema Kuta.

KMF again hosts the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. Established in 1983 to commemorate the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust celebrates their legacy with an annual Award for Mountain Literature and Lifetime Achievement Award. The perfect environment for those making their first steps into the world of outdoor filmography and photography, the Kendal Mountain Film Academy provides the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to bring stories of adventure and exploration to life, delivered by industry experts, storytellers and professional tutors. Leading photographers will also exhibit their work in various spaces in and around each of the venues. The 2016

KMF's extensive arts and literature programme also includes in the Brewery's Warehouse Cafe a series of collages derived from Dan Shipsides collection of ‘vintage’ Mountain magazines, particularly significant for their beautiful minimal design. Award-winning Kendal author and Brewery Poet, Karen Lloyd, will also feature among the many literature events 'in conversation' with Caroline Gilfillan, chatting about Nature’s Amphitheatre - Exploring the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay on Sunday at the Brewery (10.30am-noon); and there is also a talk by Ashley Cooper based around his photographic book Images from a Warming Planet on Friday (4pm) at The Factory's Artspace,

A festival not to be missed.