Packed audience at Kendal 2013

Put simply Kendal can be brutal. The schedule just to cover a single activity can be punishing and if, like most outdoor people, your interest extends to multiple adventure categories you can easily find you've left no tiime to eat, drink or sharpen the elbows before joining yet another amorphous mass in the Brewery entrance or the bar. Quite apart from the physical toll of filling every minute with film and lecture this approach also neglects a large part of what the annual gathering is about. While nominally Kendal is a mountain festival there's no getting away from the fact that Kendal is as much a social festival as a film or culture event. It's the place where people meet up once a year; every year, every November. It's a melting pot, bringing together people from every level of adventure sport and while you can always can a film later you can't expect to find yourself in conversation with the star of the film, queing for a pint, at home. You can read a book like One Day as a Tiger anytime but you can't hear the author read from it every day any more than you can learn the secrets of creative writing or talk to artists and sculptors inspired by the outdoors. To ignore the social and cultural sides of Kendal is to neglect one of the main reasons why Kendal is what it is.

Kendal is proud of its reputation as a social festival

Kendal can be expensive, there's no getting away from it. With transport, accomodation and tickets it's easy to find yourself paying out at a Glastonbury scale and if you're of the "must see" mentality when it comes to premieres you can easily be talking about monthly mortgage levels. The first time you go it's easy to be drawn into this black hole and come Sunday evening you're spat out sleep-deprived, hungry, considerably lighter in the wallet and probably so visually overloaded that what you've actually seen has merged into a blancmange of adrenaline with one film indistinguishable from the next. From the festival's point of view of putting bums on seats you're perfect, and to be honest that's how they have to think. KMF isn't a charity and it needs to fill theatres and auditoreums to keep itself in business, but from a visitors perspective you need to make it work for you.

The key to getting the most out of Kendal is to allow yourself time to take in your priorities but also to allow time to take in what you've seen. Visit Basecamp or check out one of the events that doesn't involve being glued to a chair for 2 hours when you've just watched a premiere. If you've picked a film as one of your priorities the chances are it's going to make an impression so give it time to make an impact before repeating the cycle with your next priority. From experience we've found that any more than three premieres in a day and they begin to blur into each other, the finer details becoming lost as the adrenaline highs bombard the senses. Kendal premieres and features have a habit of leaving the viewer feeling as drained as the athletes on screen and post premiere is the time for something a little lighter. Go try some free Glenfiddich or take in some live blues in the yurt, text your mates and chill over a coffee at the Warehouse cafe; mix and mingle and let Kendal be an experience rather than just a list of films. You can watch a list of films at home!

Many of the Fringe events happen in the Yurts around the site.

In the days just before Kendal it makes sense to make a schedule. Ink your priorities in and work around these. Check their venues and times, and allow a bit of time for last minute changes - the venue could change, for example, if there's an unexpected demand for more tickets. Book your tickets as early as you can commit and you'll save yourself the worst of the chaos of the box office/foyer area where queues for screening wind their way through those trying to buy tickets, make general enquiries or reach the toilets. With tickets booked, and collected as early as practical, and schedule in hand you'll have the advantage of knowing where you're going and when, a significant step in avoiding stress.

If you're on a budget the daily film passes are excellent value for money. While the premieres may pick up a lot of the headlines it's often films covered in the daily passes that emerge with prizes every year. The daily passes let you drop in and out of sessions and if you're after a totally immersive Kendal you can spend the day going from one session to another taking in everything from snowsports to extreme rock. While walking out part way through a ticketed event will raise a few eyebrows the film pass sessions are a little more forgiving and with each session showing multiple films you can watch one and leave or see out the whole three hours. Add in one or two of the free Fringe events and a chance to catch up with friends you may only meet up with once a year and it's perfectly possible to have a good Kendal for £20.

Our 2015 schedule:

Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature: The Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is the premier mountain literature award worldwide and commemorates the lives of Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker who were lost on the North East Ridge of Everest in 1982. It is awarded to the author of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.

2013 Boardman Tasker winner Harriet Tuckey

‘Redemption’ feat. James Pearson:

The James Pearson Story tells the controversial story of one of the world’s best rock climbers, James Pearson. Produced by multi award winning Hot Aches this is one one of the most anticiapted films of recent years and the premiere features contributions from director Paul Diffley, plus James Pearson himself.

Lowe Alpine Adventure Exploration Session feat. Alastair Humphreys and Dan Milner:

An afternoon of high adventure and exploration tales from around the globe. Alastair Humphries has become one of the adventure world's hottest properties since cycling round the world and his Year of Microadventure earned him a nomination for National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012. Dan Milner is an award winning photographer who will be talking  about his most challenging adventure to date, the first ever MTB expedition to the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan.

Jeff Lowe’s ‘Metanoia’:

The most talented technical climber of his generation, for 40 years Jeff made his mark across the world; from the big walls of Yosemite and Utah, to the Alps and the great Himalayan peaks. His ‘piece de resistance’ lies on North Face of the Eiger. Climbed in 1991, and still unrepeated, Metanoia (VII, 5.10, M6, A4) is the hub of this biographical documentary.

Ueli Steck:

“The Swiss machine” Ueli Steck comes to Kendal fresh from his latest exploits. Last year the man who holds the speed record for the North Face of the Eiger (2hrs 47min) focused on the high peaks of the Himalayas, soloing the South Face of Annapurna in an astonishing 28 hours Yet soon afterwards he flew into Scotland for an under-the-radar climbing hit – for Ueli, variety is the spice of life. His staggering tick-list includes everything from El Capitan free climbs and 5.13 solos, to 8,000m peaks and bold solos and speed records in the Alps and the Canadian Rockies. Your chance to hear the finest alpinist of his generation talk about his recent experiences.

Ueli Steck

2014 Awards Ceremony:

The Annual gong awards for the best films of 2014

2013 Awards

Jonathan Griffith:

A highly accomplished Alpinist himself, with hard ascents all over the world, Jonathan continues to push himself to shoot what has never been shot before. This approach has taken his climbing to a level that sees him regularly tie in with climbers such as Ueli Steck and embarking on cutting edge ascents to visually document expeditions in the Alps, Patagonia, Alaska and the Himalayas. It’s a method that puts authentic climbing at its heart: an increasingly rare but refreshing approach to adventure photography in a climate where style is valued more than substance. Jon will be showing never-seen-before imagery and video, which will take you through the highs and lows of climbing some of Europe’s hardest routes, racing up Alaskan test pieces, and finding his limit whilst new routing on Himalayan giants.

Dave Cornthwaite:

Dave Cornthwaite is an adventurer, author and filmmaker. Since quitting his life as a couch potato in 2005, Dave got busy; so far completing ten non-motorised journeys each over 1000 miles, including skateboarding across Australia, paddleboarding the Mississippi and swimming the Lower Missouri. He has written three books, entertained audiences on six continents, broken eight world records, made hundreds of short films and completed countless quirky projects.