UKC

Is it just me or is the Kendal Mountain Festival website (mountainfest.co.uk), to be frank, a bit rubbish?

It all looks very polished and shiny, with a little countdown clock and an animated scrolly speaker list and all, but I'm actually finding it tricky to find useful information on it... Also, annoyingly, under the individual entries for each speaker and event a lot of the paragraphs are duplicated.

Which brings me to my actual question: how are the films shown at Kendal? Are they just running all the time, in different venues, and you buy a film pass for one day/two days/whole weekend, and you're free to watch the films whenever you want? Or are the films running at specified times? It's kind of disappointing that I have to ask this question on here, but I honestly can't find this info on the KMF website.

I don't usually make a point of complaining about things, but someone's obviously put time and effort into the visual appeal of the website, which is great, whilst stopping short of actually making it as informative as it really needs to be. If that person is you, sorry mate, but it had to be said.

Cheers!
Pete.

In reply to PeteH:

Funnily enough I thought the same a month ago and I figured it was too early, but it's a bit better now. Still lacking quite a bit of info though. It does say it's going 'live' soon. Maybe they figure people who want to go will just go anyway.

Though I must say the similar site for Banff also lacks nearly all film info, so I guess all entries are not in - maybe Kendal is the same? Makes it hard to decide on booking though. The Wanaka Mountainfest in NZ was the same, but went even closer to the date with no film info. Must be a festival thing ...

I've seen Tim McCartney-Snape talk a few times. The last time I wanted to walk out but couldn't get past the people next to me. He was terrible - boring, stilted, old, poor slides, nothing new from what he droned on about 15 years ago. Seemed to make no effort. A bit insulting really.

D

In reply to PeteH:
If it is like previous years the films are run in programmes of say five or so films, with the programmes repeated two or three times over the weekend. With the film passes you are free to watch as many (or as few) as you wish on the days for which the pass is valid. The films are normally shown in the cinema and several other smaller venues around the Brewery Arts Centre. It does work quite well, but be warned, if you want to watch all the programmes you will need to start on the Thursday evening and not leave until Sunday afternoon. This isn't as bad as it sounds - there is still plenty of time to catch all the other things going on and have a 'few' drinks with your mates. All in all a great way to spend a (long) weekend.

In reply to PeteH:


The website's been a work in progress and hopefully you'll find it more informative now. The reality is we run the festival alongside other jobs/work so time is always an issue.

At this stage in the process (and this was the same in previous years), we're only ever able to put up details of live events - speakers etc - well in advance of the festival. On films - the deadline for film entries is 31 August and we then have to short-list to a suitable quality/workable number to show at the festival. Given the number of entries we receive this is quite a time consuming job - in fact it's a massive job. As another poster noted, Banff don't list their films until much closer to the festival either; they'll be working within same time/workload constraints.

We organise the films we receive into programmes by subject - Mountaineering, Climbing, Ski, Paddle, Bike......... and this will be the same this year. The exact list of the we show won't appear until November - this is as it's been in previous years.

Hope this helps.

In reply to Robin Ashcroft:

Is it just me, or is the live line-up a bit 'thinner' than previous years? Some great speakers, granted, and I will be there, but have their been difficulties getting people to sign up? I hope this isn't the start of the demise of KMF, I really do!

We've got about the same numbers of speakers - give or take - as in previous years with a similar profile between established names and up and coming players, who we like to give an opportunity to tell their story.

We have by far the largest lecture programme of any mountain festival anywhere in the world - worth checking out the others to see.

No difficulties in getting people to sign up - far from it.

In reply to Robin Ashcroft:
Hi Robin,
Appreciate the reply on here. I do understand that the job must be a humungous one, and that most people involved are not doing it "full-time". The website looks great, but would be much improved by simply adding the helpful information you've provided about the work-in-progress nature of the film programme, perhaps on the main front page, or under the "event details" bit of each of the film passes. Otherwise, everyone who visits the site who hasn't been to Kendal before and doesn't know the set-up will end up doing exactly what I did, and going round and round in circles getting frustrated with not being able to find out what on earth you're actually buying if you buy a two-day film pass, for example.

Cheers!
Pete.

In reply to Robin Ashcroft:

Fair enuffski - looking forward to it

Thanks for that - suggestions taken on board and you should see some updates over the next couple of days.