A polar explorer with his Arctic sled, a top mountaineer, and a man pretending to be Wainwright will be among the highlights of the country’s first Festival of the Fells to be held in Ambleside next week.

There will also be a new trail race to the summit of Wansfell, which will be started by fell-running legend Joss Naylor.

The festival will celebrate the landscape, culture, history and outdoor activity in the heart of the Lake District, in the town once known as the anorak capital of the world.

Organised by Ambleside Together, the festival will be staged over four days from Thursday September 22 until Sunday September 25. It will include guided walks and scrambles, swims in lakes and tarns, films, music and other entertainment.

Explorer Craig Mathieson will be talking about his exploits, and his work with the Polar Academy, a project which takes young people on polar expeditions to help instil confidence and self-belief.

Top mountaineer Alan Hinkes, who is the patron of the festival, will deliver the keynote lecture. Hinkes, the first Briton to climb all the world's 8000m mountains, is an international mountain guide, writer, photographer, environmentalist and an active campaigner for a number of charities.

And John Burland, the founder of the Wainwright Society, will don flat cap and pipe to give a dramatic presentation of the life and works of the guidebook writer who sparked the boom in fell-walking.

Ambleside, in the heart of the Lakes, has the highest concentration of outdoor equipment shops in any European centre, as well as being surrounded by fells offering high and low level walks, in one of the most popular walking and hiking centres.

“This is going to be an exciting long weekend,” said Ambleside Together chairman Andrew Hewitt. “We have so much to celebrate here on our doorstep. We hope that this will be appreciated and enjoyed by regular visitors and newcomers to the area.”

The organisers hope that the festival will become an annual event. They are being supported by main sponsor, Lakeland Landrover, along with help from Lakes Parish Council and South Lakes District Council.

There’s also a charity duck race organised by the Rotary Club on the Sunday.

Full details can be found at http://www.festivalofthefells.uk/events/