Adventurers Gear Up For Extreme Athlete Film Festival

Extreme sports enthusiasts have just one week to go before one of the biggest events on the calendar kicks off in the Lake District market town of Kendal.

But for once, the extreme athletes won’t be scaling mountains or attempting to swim the Atlantic. Instead they will be relaxing in front of a collection of high-adrenalin films.

The Kendal mountain film festival, held from November 19-22, is now one of the most famous of its kind in the world with around 7,000 people expected to descend on the town.

“It’s the social event of the year for anyone who’s into mountains,” event director Clive Allen told the Telegraph. “And among the world’s mountain film festivals Kendal is known as the party one, no doubt helped by taking place in a former brewery.”

Allen added that the event was a great opportunity to meet extreme athlete ‘celebrities’, explaining: “There are not many sports where you can guarantee you will be rubbing shoulders at the bar with the top performers.”

As well as some great films, the festival will also welcome a number of speakers including Himalayan climber Doug Scott and Major Phil Packer, the Iraq war veteran who, despite being paraplegic, has gone on to run the marathon and row the channel.

Looking to sponsor an extreme athlete? Dan Martin is attempting to swim the Atlantic in 2010.