Kendal Mountain Festival ready to ascend new heights (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal Mountain Festival ready to ascend new heights

2:50pm Saturday 7th November 2009

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THIRSTY adventurers who down a pint at Kendal Mountain Festival will help swell the coffers of the local rescue team.

Festival organisers have commissioned a special ale from the Hesket Newmarket Brewery entitled Kendal MRT Special, and for every pint of the top tipple sold Kendal Mountain Rescue Team will benefit by 20pence.

“We wanted to find a way of raising some money for the Kendal team because it’s the perfect opportunity and the perfect audience,” explained Clive Allen, who looks after the festival’s press and marketing.

He added: “Given that the event brings thousands of visitors to Kendal who love the mountains, and who may enjoy a pint or two, it seemed the perfect solution.”

Running from Thursday, November 19 until Sunday, November 22, KMF is one of the largest mountain festivals in the world.

Filmmakers, TV producers, adventures, climbers and world-class lecturers will rub shoulders for a four-day feast of the best films, talks, books and exhibitions, covering all aspects of high altitude adventures and sports.

Add to the mix, speciality bike, snowsports, wild water and free flight nights, the Boardman Tasker literary award as well as the excellent Adventure Film Academy for aspiring filmmakers, and you’ve got another adrenalin pumping event in store.

One highlight already getting festival-goers excited will be the world premiere of the Asgard Project, the latest epic from Alastair Lee, featuring Leo Houlding big-wall climbing and BASE jumping on Baffin on Friday, November 20.

The show has already sold-out.

Festival co-ordinator Sara Last said that this year’s line up is proving to be a really popular draw and, once again, will bring an enormous amount to the economy of the South Lakes.

‘We’re expecting around 7,000 fleece-clad enthusiasts to descend on Kendal.

“Last year this was estimated to be worth around £1.5 million.

“And at this time of the year, the festival is a lifeline to local hotels and B&Bs.”

Big Friday (November 20) lectures include US alpine climber Steve House, the BBC’s Cameron McNeish, and well-known local mountaineer Simon Yates. There is also Major Phil Packer, the officer injured in Iraq who finished the London Marathon in 13 days and then climbed 3,000 feet vertical El Capitan in Yosemite with Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell in aid of Help for Heroes; all three tell their story at 2.15pm at the Dojo, off Parkside Road, which joins the town and parish halls, Shakespeare Centre and, of course, the Brewery, as venues hosting festival events.

The festival’s art exhibition has wall-to-wall artworks dotted across the Brewery: the towering snow-clad crags of painter and mountaineer Tim Pollard juxtaposed in the Sugar Store Gallery with the bold, stylised oils of Derek Eland (check out his Wasdale Head).

Photographer and filmmaker Glen Denney has captured on black and white film his fellow climbers’ personalities and parties, aspirations and preparations and hung on the walls of the Intro Bar, while award-winning lensman Jon Wyatt focuses his camera on isolated figures within the vast, dramatic landscapes of some pretty extreme and exposed environments on show at the Warehouse Gallery.

Elsewhere, gracing the walls of the Artisan restaurant in Booths, Kendal, and tied into KMF, are the exhilarating summits and sweeping landscapes of Alps and Himalaya, painted by leading light of mountain art Vivienne Pooley.

Tickets are available online or via the Brewery box office on 01539-725133. Festival details at www.mountainfest.co.uk

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