FAQs

Join us on Thursday evening for the Festival Opening Ceremony. The festivities wind down on Sunday evening after the 'Best of Kendal' Film Collections are shown.

The live Festival takes place in Kendal, a picturesque market town situated on the edge of the English Lake District UNESCO World Heritage Site. We use a number of venues around the town to host events.

You can also access many of the events and films online, via the Kendal Mountain Player.

Kendal is easy to reach from many parts of the UK, by train, bus, bike, or car. The town will be especially busy during the Festival weekend and there is limited parking – to avoid traffic and minimise the environmental impact of your journey, please use public transport wherever possible.See our Travel to Kendal page for more details.

All of our ticketed Festival events are sold separately and you will receive your tickets digitally.

Once you have made your booking, you will receive confirmation of your order via email and your tickets will be attached as a PDF document. All of the tickets made in each booking will be sent in one confirmation email and will be on one PDF.

You will need to show your tickets to the Kendal Mountain Festival staff on the door – either using the digital ticket, or you can print your tickets before attending.

If you can’t find your tickets, do not have a smartphone, or require a physical ticket for accessibility reasons, our Box Office will be happy to provide you with one.

The majority of our events are assigned seating so please make sure to sit in your allocated seat to avoid disruption.

Please note: If you are having a problem paying for your tickets please check you have included your postcode or try booking with a different device.

Some general e-ticketing tips:

It might be a good idea to screenshot your tickets if you’re concerned about wifi access.

If you’ve booked tickets for a group, please try your best to show up together.

Above all, be kind – e-ticketing is still fairly new at the Festival, for venue staff as well as audience members, so try to bear this in mind if there are any hold-ups.

We work with a number of venues around the town to host events, including Kendal Leisure Centre, where you’ll find our speaker events in the 800+ seat venue.

Many of our events and films are shown at the Brewery Arts Centre.

In Abbot Hall Park, you'll find our ever-growing Basecamp Village. With free talks, interactive stands, and a food village, this is the true social hub of the Festival and a great place to hang out between sessions.

The Festival extends throughout Kendal's cobbled lanes and yards. Other venues include Kendal Town Hall, The Box, Kendal Parish Hall and the Venue, Barrel House.For venue addresses, please see our Venue & Accessibility page.

If you can't make it to Kendal you can catch the majority of Festival films online via the Kendal Mountain Player with a range of purchase and subscription options.

While most of the films will be available via the Player please be aware that some of the Festival selection films will only be available at the Live Festival and some will have limited screening time on the Player. We will endeavour to announce these in advance although access to films is subject to change depending on distribution rights.

We also upload audio recordings of some of our speaker sessions to the Player after the Festival. These are available for free on the Player.

We are continuing to explore ways to make the Festival as inclusive and accessible as we can going forwards. For more information on accessibility please refer to our Venue & Accessibility page.

Many events are not suitable for young children, but we do hold specific events for families, including Parent & Baby Film Screenings and Family Adventure Films.

You are welcome to take children to explore our Basecamp Village, this is free to enter and no ticket is required. Please note, while prams are welcome, the space can get busy.

Some of our Film Collections are assigned Red, Blue, Green or Yellow. The colours don't have any significance in terms of the content of the collection. They simply mean that we have so many great films in that category that we have been able to create more than one collection. They could have been assigned 1, 2, 3 etc or A, B, C – we just preferred the use of colours!

If travelling by car, please find someone to share a lift with or offer to drive others – find a lift/passenger with Liftshare.

Parking is limited over the festival weekend, particularly in the centre, and the one-way system traffic may increase your journey time. We strongly recommend choosing a car park outside of the centre and enjoying a short stroll/cycle/bus/train/taxi ride to your destination.

If you do drive into Kendal, make sure to plan ahead – the websites below are a good place to start:

• South Lakeland District Council
• Parkopedia
• Cumbria County Council Car Park
• JustPark

Accessible Parking

Blue Badge holders parking in any bay in South Lakeland District Council car parks get one extra hour of parking for free on top of the parking they pay for. Blue Badge holders need to display their badge. A full list of disabled parking spaces can be found here.

Be prepared for November in Cumbria – it will be cold and it's likely to be wet. Whilst the Festival is predominantly an indoor event, you will be moving between venues, so please dress appropriately. Warm layers are encouraged but you can leave the ice axe, crampons and compass at home. 

All our main venues are fully accessible. Specific information about each venue can be found on our Venue & Accessibility page.

If you would like to book a space for a wheelchair or have accessibility requirements please contact us at info@mountainfest.co.uk. We also offer one free carer seat, please use the same email address to discuss this with us.

We suggest that you arrive at your events a few minutes early so our team can help you accordingly.

There is a wide range of accommodation available to book in Kendal and the surrounding area.

Please visit our Where to Stay page to find some useful links and more information that will help you find a great place to stay.

As a general rule we are not able to offer refunds but we may be able to swap your ticket for another event if availability allows.

Please contact us at info@mountainfest.co.uk if you need to discuss this with us.

Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed in any of the main Festival venues, including the tented Basecamp Village – this can get very crowded and is unsuitable for your pets!

Guide dogs, of course, are allowed.

Thea's Lakeland Walks is a Pet Sitting company based in Penrith that may be able to help you if you would like your dog looked after while you are at the Festival.

Yes, we're delighted to continue to expand our offering with the growing Food & Drink Village in our Basecamp.

There are also lots of great places to eat and drink in Kendal which we would encourage you to explore – find out more on our Food and Drink page.

Yes, the Info Desk is situated in our Basecamp in Abbot Hall Park, just a short 3 minute walk from the Brewery Arts.   Inside the Basecamp there will also be an Kendal Mountain Festival Merchandise stand with posters, drink containers, baseball caps and blanckets all celebrating the 2025 Festival.

The Brewery Arts will have floor space to perfrom Salat.

We are recommending 98 Highgate (LA9 4HE) as a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ community. You'll certainly receive a warm welcome from the lovely staff.