Celebrate the great outdoors by walking, running and swimming at an all-action new festival in Ambleside
The country’s first Festival of the Fells will be held in Ambleside, offering a feast of walking, swimming and scrambling. The event will celebrate the landscape, culture, history and outdoor activity in the heart of the Lake District.
The festival will open on September 22 with a reception at Zeffirellis and will run until Sunday September 25. It will include guided walks, swims in lakes and tarns, food, music and other entertainment and organisers Ambleside Together hope the festival will become an annual event
Top mountaineer Alan Hinkes is the patron of the festival and will give a guest lecture on September 24. Hinkes, the first Briton to climb all the world’s 8000m mountains, is an international mountain guide, writer, photographer, environmentalist and an active campaigner for a number of charities. Clive Hutchby, who has been commissioned to revise and update all the Wainwright guide books to the Lakeland fells, will also give a talk at the festival, as will explorer Craig Mathieson.
‘This is a really exciting opportunity,’ said Ambleside Together chairman Andrew Hewitt. ‘The town is known in the equipment world as the European outdoors capital and we have so much to celebrate here on our doorstep. We hope this will be appreciated and enjoyed by regular visitors and newcomers to the area.’
Ambleside, in the heart of the Lakes, has the highest concentration of outdoor equipment shops in any European centre, as well as being surrounded by fells offering high and low level walks, in one of the most popular walking and hiking centres.
A programme of events is being organised and these will include guided walks over Loughrigg and Wansfell, Red Screes, and the Fairfield Horseshoe, a fell race, combined swim and walk tours using lakes and tarns, and talks on the history, fell-walking and climbing exploits of the area. There will be live music in the town centre and other venues.
For more information go online to loveambleside.uk
