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Kendal Mountain Events Festival

Kendal Mountain Events brings thousands of outdoor enthusiasts from across the globe together to share and celebrate the best stories from the world of adventure. 
Their vision is to inspire more people to enjoy, respect and represent the mountains, through their annual festival in Kendal, Cumbria, and more recently school engagement programmes. 
 

Duration
5 Years
Cost of capital
8%
Turnover
£488,517
Amount invested
£165,000
Product type
Unsecured loan (incl. overdrafts)

Challenge

There is a lack of awareness or engagement of young people and families in outdoor activities. The aim of Kendal Mountain Events is to engage young people and families in outdoor activities and film, therefore increasing confidence in their own abilities and developing resilience. It’s integral that young people are inspired by physical and mental achievements and by places that open their imagination, sharing the knowledge from stories of true explorers. 

Continued engagement with young people facing disadvantage s  can alleviate truancy and improve school engagement. The aim is to reach those underrepresented in outdoor participation, those with disabilities and those who would benefit from vocational educational courses. In addition, the growth of the Film and Digital Sector is of significant importance and young people of Cumbria should have awareness of their influence on it regardless of their distance from the major media areas of the UK.

Solution

Kendal Mountain Events Ltd deliver a festival on an annual basis every November in Kendal, Cumbria. The award-winning festival is one of the most diverse of its kind, attracting film premières from around the world and is innovative, inclusive and a creative celebration of everything outdoors. Investment has assisted them to reach new audiences both at the Festival and at other times of the year. 

They are passionate about ‘Film Active’ which enables young people to share their outside experiences through film whilst developing skills for future employment. Investment enabled them to engage with more under 25s, especially those underrepresented in outdoor participation, those with disabilities and those who would benefit from vocational educational courses. 

Revenue 

Revenue is raised from ticket sales along with sponsorship, largely from outdoor activity companies. Investment was used to increase our audience outside of the November festival and expose more people to the wonders of the wild world while supporting partners by engaging with the opportunities that present themselves.

They identified areas that could increase profitability to reinvest in the community offering by creating a media arm of the business, developing international partners and developing Festival related events outside of November. In addition, it enabled them to bring in new audiences to the festival through targeted marketing, widening the scope of what is on offer to increase ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities. 

Impact

In November 2020, due to Covid restrictions, the Festival was delivered digitally and a post investment grant supported the digital delivery of events aimed at schools and young people. This helped to attract new schools, supported costs of delivering a Young Programmers Event, and assisted with costs associated in developing more accessible programmes for people with physical and learning difficulties to be delivered digitally.

As a result, over six weeks, the 2020 digital Festival was a huge success reaching 82 countries, engaging with adventurers from 4 years to 87 years old, watched in 22,000 homes with more than 200 films, 80 inspiring speakers, 30 literature talks, 15 specialist sessions and 14 awards. Over 2,550,000 minutes of curated content had been watched.

Expansion of the festival enables them to engage and inspire a wider range of disadvantaged young people to explore, enjoy and represent adventure sports, mountains, wilderness and their cultures.

“Thank you for the schools pass for our children – they loved it! We paused after each film and discussed all sorts of issues and the children shared some lovely memories of camping, wildlife and aspirations to get out in the future. As a school that hangs its hat on its programme of outdoor and adventurous activities, it’s been a struggle this year. But the KMF session has given us the push and determination to get out more locally. We even had a go at two of Hugh’s science experiments - the ‘plastic milk’ worked a treat!” 

Phil Cooper, Head Teacher Brough Community Primary School

“Kendal Mountain Events provides positive social impact on a large scale and supports the local economy in Cumbria. We were keen to support them with investment and have been delighted by the growth of the Festival and extended reach of their beneficiaries which has generated over £3.5m in social value.”

Livv Investment