Kendal Mountain Festival runs 19 to 22 November 2026. The film programme is out and 32 events have sold out: day passes, venues and the race-day road closures.
Kendal Mountain Festival runs from Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 November 2026. Passes are already on sale, and this is the year the festival added two new pass types, so the cheapest way in has changed.
Updated 14 October: the festival released its fourth set of events on 9 October, headed by Bear Grylls live at Kendal Leisure Centre on Saturday 21 November. The film programme was still not out on 14 October, and 32 events are already sold out; see who is on.
Updated 24 October: the full film programme is now live. The festival says 128 films were selected for 2026. Among them is “More than Everest: The life of T.H. Somervell”, a 45-minute film by Simon Pierse about the 1922 and 1924 Everest climber’s other life as a missionary surgeon, artist and composer. It shows once, at 8.15pm on Thursday 19 November in the Brewery Arts Studio. (Film guide, film page)
The one thing worth knowing before you book: the film programme is not published yet. The festival’s own homepage says events are released each month between July and October, “with the film programme announced mid-October”. If you are buying to see a specific film, you are buying before you know what is showing.
The dates, and what happens on each
| Day | Date | Day pass |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 19 November | £25 |
| Friday | 20 November | £70 |
| Saturday | 21 November | £85 |
| Sunday | 22 November | £45 |
The Festival Weekend Pass covers all four days for £205. The festival puts the equivalent individual-ticket value at £341, which is its own estimate “based on average ticket purchases of consecutive events at the highest price”, so treat it as a sales figure rather than a measured saving.
New for 2026 are two extra pass families, both listed on the festival’s passes and tickets page:
- Two-Together passes, which let you book two tickets to each event. Weekend £360, Thursday £45, Friday £125, Saturday £150, Sunday £80.
- Under 18s passes. Weekend £130, Thursday £15, Friday £40, Saturday £50, Sunday £35. Holders must be 17 or younger during the festival, and the festival says photo identification is needed both when booking and for spot checks over the weekend, with the right to revoke passes and refuse refunds.
Every pass carries a one-off booking fee of 3.5% plus a 0.75 pence transactional fee, charged by the ticket provider rather than the festival.
Who is on, and what has sold out
The festival has released its programme in waves since July; the fourth came on 9 October 2026, according to its news page. The biggest name so far is Bear Grylls, “live in conversation” with journalist and festival patron Keme Nzerem at Kendal Leisure Centre, Saturday 21 November, 1pm to 2pm, with a book signing afterwards. The session is presented by Modern Savage, his supplement brand, which the listing says he will talk about. It was still bookable when we checked the festival’s ticketing site on 14 October.
The same programme listing showed 32 events marked “Sold out” on 14 October, five weeks before the festival. Among them:
- Gordon Buchanan in conversation with Ben Fogle, Friday 20 November, 10am, Kendal Town Hall Assembly Room
- Sophie Raworth, Running On Air, Saturday 21 November, 2.30pm, Brewery Arts Malt Room
- The Continued Adventures of Leo Houlding, Saturday 21 November, 4pm, Brewery Arts Theatre
- Both Osprey Ceilidhs (Friday and Saturday) and several of the Montane “Secret Sessions”
Passholders cannot book sold-out events either, but the festival points out that passholders can cancel, so seats do come back closer to the date.
Four things in the small print that catch people out
A pass does not cover the online films. The terms say plainly: “The 2026 pass does not include access to the online films via Kendal Mountain Player.” That is a separate subscription.
You cannot book overlapping events. Passes will not let you hold tickets for two events that start at the same time or overlap, so a packed Saturday needs planning rather than optimism.
Passes are flexible, individual tickets are not. With a pass you can cancel or swap any booked ticket up to 15 minutes before the event starts, through the My Tickets area of your account. Individual tickets carry a booking fee per event and, in the festival’s words, “No cancellations, refunds or swaps will be available.”
A small number of events are excluded from passes, listed in the terms and conditions rather than on the pass pages.
If you would rather buy event by event, the festival’s published floors are £7.50 for activities, workshops and community events, £10.50 for film and book events, £14.50 for live sessions and speaker events, £16.50 for music events and parties, and £22 for premium events and activities. Free carer tickets are offered to anyone who needs one for disability or access reasons.
Where it all happens
The festival does not have a single site. It takes over venues across the town, and the addresses are published on its venues page:
| Venue | Address |
|---|---|
| Basecamp | Kirkland, LA9 5AL |
| Kendal Leisure Centre | Burton Road, LA9 7HX |
| Brewery Arts Centre | 122A Highgate, LA9 4HE |
| Kendal Town Hall | 9a Lowther Street, LA9 4DA |
| The Box at Kendal College | Station Road, LA9 6BT |
| Abbott Hall Social Centre | Dowker’s Lane, LA9 4DN |
| The Venue at The Barrel House | Castle Mills, Aynam Road, LA9 7DE |
| Kendal Climbing Wall | Lake District Business Park, LA9 6NH |
| Bakery No.4 | 40 Woolpack Yard, LA9 4NG |
| The Elsewhere Bar | 5 Wainwrights Yard, LA9 4DP |
The largest events go to Kendal Leisure Centre, which the festival describes as “an 800+ seat venue”. The Basecamp Village at Kirkland is the free part: the festival says it hosts more than 70 free talks alongside brand stands and a food village. Basecamp is wheelchair accessible, only service dogs are allowed inside the tents, and the open-air food village and outdoor spaces are dog-friendly.
The trail runs close roads on Saturday 21 November
The Kendal Mountain Trail Runs, organised by Maverick Race, all run on the Saturday:
- The North Face Kendal Mountain 50km Ultra Run, 9am start
- adidas TERREX Kendal Mountain 10km Trail Run, 11am start
- The North Face Kendal Mountain 25km run, new for 2026
Entries are open for all three. The festival is honest about one detail most race pages would bury: the 10km “is closer to 11.8km, but 10km has a nicer ring to it”.
Both the 50km and the 25km descriptions say the route starts “on closed roads in Kendal town centre”. No temporary traffic regulation order for the festival had been advertised on the Public Notice Portal when we checked the Kendal postcodes on 4 September 2026: the most recent Westmorland and Furness traffic notice, dated 3 September, covers utility works at Skelwith Bridge and off Blackhall Road and nothing else. Closure detail should appear there in the weeks before the race, and we will add it here when it does.
Separately, the SportsShoes Quid Games runs on Friday 20 November at 7pm, a timed street challenge around the town. The festival says registration for it “opens in September 2026”, so it is not bookable yet.
Parking, and why the festival cannot help you with it
The festival lists a “Where to park” page in its own sitemap. That page is empty. So is its “Tickets and Pricing” page. Both returned nothing but navigation and a footer when we fetched them on 4 September 2026, eleven weeks before the festival opens and with passes already selling.
That matters because Kendal has no free council car park at all, and the festival weekend is the busiest of the year. The practical points from our parking page: South Lakeland House is £8.10 all day Monday to Saturday but £1.50 all day on a Sunday, Blackhall Road is £1.40 all day if you buy the ticket before 7am, and permits are not valid at Parish Church, Wainwrights Yard or the Snowsports Club. For anything shut on the day, see roadworks and travel.
One number the festival gives twice, differently
Worth flagging if you are quoting the festival’s scale. The top of its homepage says the weekend has “150+ films” and “60+ activities and workshops”. Further down the same page it says “170+ films and 50+ activities”. Both figures are live on the same page. The counts that are consistent across the site are 200+ live sessions, 300+ speakers, 10+ parties and an audience the festival puts at over 25,000.
Still to come
- Mid-October: the full film programme, which the ticketing site still said “will be released mid-October” on 14 October.
- September: Quid Games registration.
- Before 19 November: any road closure order for the trail runs, which would appear as a statutory notice.
Booking and full terms are on the festival’s own site at kendalmountainfestival.com. For what else is on in town that month, see things to do in Kendal and our Christmas lights switch-on page, which falls five days after the festival ends.
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