AMBLESIDE is taking the plunge with a series of wild swimming adventures at this year's Festival of the Fells event.

Open water specialists Swim the Lakes will take swimmers out in the lakes and rivers during this year’s festival, including a night swim in Windermere which was featured on BBC television.

The moonlit dip will be one of the highlights of this year’s festival which will celebrate life and landscape in and around Ambleside.

The organisers are hoping that this year’s event will be even bigger and better than the inaugural festival last year, which was loved by thousands of visitors and brought an extra £200,000 into the local economy.

The new headline sponsors are the leading holiday cottage company, Heart of the Lakes, whose headquarters are in Ambleside.

The festival will be held over four days from September 21-24 and will feature a programme of walks, talks, music and film along with the swimming events. These can be booked now on the Swim the Lakes website, and include wild swimming taster sessions, and a swim down the River Brathay described as “down the river without a paddle”.

Swim the Lakes director Pete Kelly said the moonlit swim, which was featured in Secret Britain on TV, when presenter Ellie Harrison swam in the dark, was likely to be the most popular.

“This is wild swimming which is a little bit out of the ordinary,” he said. “Our moonlit swims give you the opportunity to forget about your speed and technique and instead enjoy swimming for what it really is: a chance to tune into a different frequency, explore, and get closer to the spirit of real wild swimming. If we’re lucky we may even encounter the famous Windermere otters.”

http://www.swimthelakes.co.uk/product-category/book-now/short-wild-swims/

http://www.festivalofthefells.uk/