UKC

The BMC and the KendalWall are supporting the Lakes Fest 2022 which will take place over the weekend of 22-24 April 2022. 

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In reply to UKC Gear:

Thanks for the "heads up". I'll avoid the Duddon that weekend.

Cheers

In reply to biggianthead:

Same here

But to show some empathy to this type of events I might be persuaded to donate a project .

The Duddon is my wife's favourite valley and has been a Godsend as a lockdown venue.

So, wellprotected after the start, 12 m long , overhanging by 3 m, technical bridging laybacking and slapping, 1-3 minutes from the road. About 7a/b in French money.

Only tried it by myself in zero temperatures, but if I give it away to the event, I can try it later when my fingers and shoulders improve , or I just admit I am too fat and old.

Done over a hundred new routes up to E3 since the guide so one extra is maybe a bit greedy.

All cleaned and ready to go.

In reply to Supatra57:

All festivals? 

We have met with local businesses, and those we can from the community, and they're fully supportive. We did get some concerns and we have worked together to allay these successfully.

I'm happy to chat publicly on here, or privately if you wish to remain anonymous, about any issues you may have with the festival.

It is a small BMC event, run by volunteers.

What will piss the locals off? Who are the locals? 

The valley will be as busy as it is the week before and after. The campsite is already fully booked those weekends and the camping barn at Wallowbarrow is fully booked the week after. It's likely to be less busy on our weekend tbh.

In reply to UKC Gear:

Some really negative comments in this thread. disappointing.

The Duddon is one of my most regular haunts, I personally would love to see the climbing in the area get more attention. The rock may not be as extensive or grand as other lakes venues and for this reason it will never be as popular as say Langdale. But for some reason the scrappy adventurous little duddon crags have a character all of their own.

Even if you quadrupled the number of climbers visiting the valley you would still have no problem finding whole crags to yourself (excluding Wallobarrow and maybe Stonestar).

In reply to paul_the_northerner:

I agree. Yep, I'm sure it will be a little busier than an average (completely quiet with virtually nobody else around) weekend in the Duddon, but that's generally (if people are considerate) good for local businesses/campsites/pubs and actually good for the climbing as a) the duddon is great and more people should enjoy it b) a lot of the routes could do with a bit of mileage to clean them up. 

Only slight gripe is with the timing, as its bird ban season for a few Duddon crags.

If people realllllly hate the idea of other people being in the Duddon, I guess they can go to Langdale that weekend where it'll be nice and quiet, as allllllll the people will be in the Duddon.

In reply to biscuit:

What absolute crap, of course a festival will make it busier. I live in the Lakes and it's becoming horrendous here with visitors. 

In reply to Supatra57:

Unless you live in the Duddon, your locale will be quieter surely?

In reply to Supatra57:

If you can’t cope with people visiting, you can always move to somewhere that no one else wants to go. 

In reply to Supatra57:

You don't get to live in the Lakes and moan about visitors.

In reply to Supatra57:

Its a national park there for everyone to enjoy. The beauty of it is likely the reason why most of its residents choose to live there but part of that is accepting that other people want to enjoy the lake district too. 

A climbing and walking festival seems fully in the spirit of the lake district, if its well managed then I cannot see any problem. 

In reply to paul_the_northerner:

It would be a struggle to cause more upset to the locals than the tw*ts that organise the Montane 50 and 100.

In reply to Supatra57:

My point was that there is only so much accommodation in the Duddon. The campsite being the vast majority of it. The campsite is fully booked the week before and after the festival.

So if we fully book the campsite out it is still not busier than the week before or after. So I can’t see how we can make it busier? We are not encouraging day visitors. 

I used to live in the Lakes and would get a bit cheesed off on bank holidays etc. but then I remembered I was fortunate enough to live in a beautiful place that lots of others wanted to visit. 

I’m not sure how visitors has come as an unwelcome surprise to you if you chose to live in an area that pre covid had over 19 million visits a year. 

In reply to biscuit:

Whatever, obviously festivals piss locals off because the place is overrun. And obviously they encourage even more people despite your farcical denials.

In reply to Supatra57:

You ever been to a climbing "festival" in the Lakes? You can expect about 20 people to turn up!

Other than the honeypots, which the Duddon is not, most of the climbing in the Lakes could do with a bit more traffic. If you think that this event will have some negative impact on the Lakes, you're mental.

In reply to Supatra57: is it the word “ festival “ that gets your back up ? It used to me but then I came around to the fact that if it was a “ meet “ ( aka the weekend meet )  then I my back was no longer up . Also, a bit mischievously , please see my how many crags in the doudon  valley thread and respond . 
smiley face  .

In reply to Supatra57:

Have you ever been to a climbing festival? Have you ever been to Duddon?

Ive been to a climbing festival in the Duddon Valley. It was about 30 people. Wallowbarrow was busier than usual, but the valley was like any other weekend, one of the quietist in the Lakes.

In reply to mike123:

It does suggest a much larger event than is apparently the case, and that would probably put me off visiting at the same time as one is happening.  Rightly or wrongly, I would assume it will be more disruptive than is probably the case.

I find the website is quite difficult to read, as the text is superimposed over the photos, which keep changing every few seconds.

In reply to The New NickB:

I was at a Duddon festival (maybe the same one) about a decade back and the idea it pissed off most locals seems ridiculous (beyond our latest UKC nimby iconoclast) as quite a few locals were involved and they had been careful to talk and act to avoid problems. We checked routes and had a great time.

Well done biscuit et al... I'll try and make it if I can.

In reply to Offwidth:

Yes, 2010. I had a drink with you in the Newfield Inn.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Of course not. It's a troll.