Get a taste for adventure at Kendal Mountain Festival 2021

Fancy an adventure themed night at the cinema? A weekend of talks with people who love the outdoors? Maybe it’s a chance to try something new? The Kendal Mountain Festival is back for 2021, Thursday 18th to Sunday 21st November.

Given recent headlines, this part of the press release caught our eye: ‘As enthusiasm for open water swimming continues to spread across the nation, one of Kendal’s most popular events, the Zone3 Outdoor Swimming Session, returns to share exhilarating swimming tales.’ No doubt the speaker from Surfers Against Sewage will have some interesting words to say!

For those who are only interested in bikes, they feature in a number of the film sessions, plus the Berghaus Women in Adventure session, and of course Trek Bike Night. Here’s the full press release, plus details for ticket bookings.

World champion athletes, pioneering explorers and intrepid adventurers at Kendal Mountain Festival 2021

Tickets are selling fast for the 2021 Kendal Mountain Festival, the largest gathering of the outdoor community in the UK. This year’s speaker programme is packed with tales of adventure shared by some of the world’s most fascinating and entertaining athletes and explorers.

Festival Director Steve Scott says: “We are so pleased to be back with a physical event this year, and delighted to welcome so many exciting and talented individuals to the festival stage!” 

This year’s event hosts a collection of remarkable stories from speakers at the cutting edge of adventure and exploration. Friday headliner Nirmal “Nims” Purja makes his debut at the Festival to share the European Premiere of ‘14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible’, a new Netflix film which follows his epic challenge to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000m peaks in seven months. Also taking to the stage on Friday will be explorer, campaigner and writer Belinda Kirk in conversation with adventurer Anna Blackwell to talk about all things escapism, resilience and lessons learned from the wild.

Extreme TV adventurer Aldo Kane headlines the Saturday programme with ‘tales from the edge’ including abseiling into an erupting volcano, rowing the Atlantic and getting locked in a bunker for 10 days with zero daylight. Plus Olympic athlete and one of our most successful British rock climbers, Shauna Coxsey, heads to the stage to share a special preview screening of her new film ‘The Wall: Climbing for Gold’.

Kendal Mountain Festival provides an opportunity for pioneers within the outdoors to elevate important topics and this year sees several panel discussions. Trail running superstar Kilian Jornet will be bringing his new ‘Climate Academy’ to the Festival – a platform aiming to give outdoor athletes the scientific literacy to discuss climate change and environmental issues with confidence. Iceland supermarket Managing Director Richard Walker, together with Surfers Against Sewage CEO, Hugo Tagholm, lead a passionate call to ‘democratise environmentalism’ by making it relevant and relatable in a panel event hosted within the Festival’s free Basecamp Village. A screening of the Patagonia film ‘They/Them: One Climber’s Story’ will precede a panel discussion led by Eden Elgeti exploring queer, non-binary and transgender issues within the outdoors community.

Festival favourites such as ‘The North Face and Ellis Brigham Snow Night’ and ‘Trek Bike Night’ will return with star-studded line-ups. The Palm and Pyranha Paddlesports Session is back, playing host to one of the world’s top white-water kayakers Rush Sturges. The Berghaus Women in Adventure session headlines Anna Taylor, who recently became the first woman to complete a continuous round of all 83 routes featured in the ‘Classic Rock’ book, plus Amira Patel, founder of The Wanderlust Women, a hiking group for Muslim women.

As enthusiasm for open water swimming continues to spread across the nation, one of Kendal’s most popular events, the Zone3 Outdoor Swimming Session, returns to share exhilarating swimming tales.

For full programme listings and tickets visit https://tickets.kendalmountainfestival.com/

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

More posts from Hannah