Kendal Mountain Festival 2016: Report

© Ola Stepien

The Kendal Mountain Festival 2016 proved once again to be a busy and inspiring four days of films, photos, music, art and literature with plenty of beer, food and social activity on the side. This year, the festival placed yet more emphasis on making the events thoughtfully and creatively diverse, with more arts and literature sessions than ever before. A further major change saw the film screenings categorised by central themes and emotions rather than by activity, as in previous years.

Kendal gets busy for another year of festival madness  © Ola Stepien
Kendal gets busy for another year of festival madness
© Ola Stepien

The Basecamp Village proved popular with talks and workshops adding an energetic vibe to the exhibitor stalls and the Vat Bar was yet again the social hub of the festival. Neil Gresham and Ben Moon offered workshops on the Moon board, which attracted some big names throughout the weekend. Rumour has it that local up-and-coming star Aidan Roberts burnt-off Alex Megos on one particular problem...

Liam Lonsdale mastering the microphone in the Basecamp Village  © Ola Stepien
Liam Lonsdale mastering the microphone in the Basecamp Village
© Ola Stepien

Notable speakers included the inimitable US climber Cedar Wright, German sport climbing hero Alex Megos and 'Wide Boy' Pete Whittaker, who revealed all about his recent all-free rope-solo of El Capitan. Greg Boswell and Nick Bullock regaled an audience with tales of their bear encounter in Canada last year. Other fringe events such as the the Filmmaking Summit, live music shows, art exhibitions and the 10km Trail Race added to the multifarious nature of the festival.

Browsing some bargain books...  © Ola Stepien
Browsing some bargain books...
© Ola Stepien

UKC played an active role in the festival once again. A highlight of the weekend was Nick Brown's film 'Run Forever' receiving the Judge's Special Prize, a film following the story of Nicky's successful 132-mile double Bob Graham Round around the Lakeland fells in May, ten years after being diagnosed with, and recovering from, breast cancer. Nick commented on his win:

'It was an immense privilege to stand up on stage with Nicky to accept the judge's special prize, especially from such an experienced panel. It was also great to see Roger Baumeister there who did the first double Bob Graham. There's a lovely moment in the film where he talks about not winning any awards for doing these sports, so it was nice for both him and Nicky to get some recognition for their amazing achievements.'

Nicky Spinks and Nick Brown receive the trophy from Keme Nzerem  © Henry Iddon
Nicky Spinks and Nick Brown receive the trophy from Keme Nzerem
© Henry Iddon

Our upcoming short film 'Dear Alison' - a film based on a poem written in memory of the late Alison Hargreaves by climber and poet Helen Mort and produced in conjunction with Dark Sky Media - screened in the 'Vision' session throughout the weekend and will be available to watch online from next week as part of a UKC Digital Feature on Helen and her work.

Lots to do at KMF 2016  © Kendal Mountain Festival
Lots to do at KMF 2016
© Kendal Mountain Festival

Rob Greenwood hosted the Petzl Rock Session featuring Jorg Verhoeven, Katha Saurwein, Robbie Phillips and a virtual Andy Pollitt on Sunday afternoon. Rob commented:

'This year's session was a real blast, not least because Robbie, Jorg and Katha had just got back from highly successful trips to Yosemite Valley - as such the psyche was high (infectiously so!). Alongside Andy Pollitt's virtual presence, we had the actual presence of his editor/school teacher Andy Boorman, which really made the session for me.'

On Friday evening, Natalie Berry was 'in conversation' with Dan Richards, author of Climbing Days, an exploration of the writing and climbing lives of his great great aunt and uncle, Dorothy Pilley and I. A. Richards.

Natalie Berry interviews Dan Richards on stage  © Henry Iddon
Natalie Berry interviews Dan Richards on stage
© Henry Iddon

We were also present throughout the weekend on the UKC/UKH and Rockfax stand, where festival-goers enjoyed bargain guidebooks, so much so that festival stock of the latest Chamonix Rockfax sold out!

photo
Some of the team manning the Rockfax/UKC/UKH stand
© Ola Stepien

The winner of the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature was The Bond by Simon McCartney and Vertebrate Publishing, a book which is tipped to become a mountaineering classic. Announcing the winner, chair of judges Graham Desroy described The Bond as a book that 'portrays life at the very edge of existence'.

Simon McCartney wins the Boardman Tasker Award with 'The Bond'  © Henry Iddon
Simon McCartney wins the Boardman Tasker Award with 'The Bond'
© Henry Iddon

In addition to Nick Brown's win, the prestigious International Film Competition saw other British filmmakers receive trophies for their work. Al Lee's 'Blocheads' - a film depicting the history and modern-day culture of British bouldering - scooped two awards, Best Climbing Film and People's Choice and local filmmaker Dom Bush won Best Adventure Sport film with 'Tom Seipp - A Mountain Journal.'

Cedar Wright entertains the crowd, KMF 2016.  © Ola Stepien
Cedar Wright entertains the crowd, KMF 2016.
© Ola Stepien

Each night this week, we'll be posting one of our five favourite climbing films from the festival as part of our 'Kendal Rekindled' film night concept. Keep an eye out...

The Basecamp and Brewery at night  © Ola Stepien
The Basecamp and Brewery at night
© Ola Stepien

International Film Competition - Winners 2016

Grand Prize: The Accord

Judges Special Prize: Run Forever

Best Short Film: King of the Mountain

Best Environment Film: Samuel in the Clouds

Best Mountaineering Film: Jurek

Best Adventure & Exploration Film: Iran: A Skier's Journey

Best Climbing Film: Blocheads

Best Culture: Drawing the Tiger

Best Adventure Sport: Tom Seipp - A Mountain Journal

Best Sound: The Place

Best Visual: Johanna

Peoples Choice Film Prize: Blocheads

Visit Kendal Mountain Festival's website.


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22 Nov, 2016
All very interesting, and I'm sure the boardman tasker means something to a few people, but who won the biggest competition..... the rope coiling one.
23 Nov, 2016
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23 Nov, 2016
Brilliant weekend; excellent organisation, great for the Town, some great films and talks........especially Megos, but every year the last bit of the weekend is a amateurish! If I buy tickets to the 'Best of' showing, why cant they be allocated to a venue, hence avoiding having to go to the Brewery, queing up at Theatre 2, to have some guy count down the queue and then say, "sorry guys, you'll need to go to the Shakespear Centre...." which is fine, except when you've got your 88 year old parents with you! All a bit of a mystery given, as I say, how far this whole event has come over the years. And the actual films we then saw in the Best of showing? Modest/poor. We say nothing in the 4.15 showing I'd want to see again.
24 Nov, 2016
Yep a totally wasted evening at "The Best of"
24 Nov, 2016
Much like the best of Banff which was a total waste of time and money. I wonder if the people who run these things know that they will fill cinemas everywhere no matter how poor the chhoices so they can do what they want. That's how it feels. Added to the fact that you can usually see all the films for free within a few days of KMFF the whole thing seems to be becoming a bit of a cynical marketing excercise.
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