0:22

Hello and welcome to On the Outside

0:22

the podcast that shares diverse

0:27

views on what's happening outdoors.

0:27

The Kendall

0:31

Mountain Festival National

0:31

Tour began last week.

0:35

As you know from our

0:35

episode way back in 2021.

0:39

Kendall is the UK's biggest

0:39

outdoor festival and they have now

0:44

packaged up the spirit of Kendall

0:44

with films and guest speakers to do

0:49

the tour of the uk. And I thought the star to the tour would

0:51

be a good chance for me to catch up

0:56

on our Kendall coverage. I could not make it to

0:59

Kendall in November myself,

1:02

but I managed to convince one of our

1:02

panelists that you know quite well

1:07

to represent the podcast up there.

1:10

In a moment you will hear the post

1:10

festival conversation I had with her.

1:15

Plus she asked a number

1:15

of different people,

1:18

three questions about the festival.

1:18

Have you been to Kendall before?

1:22

What's been your favorite part? And would you like to see

1:25

anything improved or done

1:30

Now, before I cut to that Kendall chat,

1:33

I just want to say this is

1:33

not an advert for Kendall.

1:36

The festival team did ask on the outside

1:36

to go up and they gave us use of the

1:41

media room. But this show does

1:41

not get advertising as you know.

1:45

It is run on passion by

1:45

myself and the panelists and

1:50

on the support from you, the listener.

1:53

So if you are in a position to

1:53

support the show financially,

1:57

please head to patreon.com/on

1:57

the outside podcast

2:02

you can see there are a number of

2:02

support options available there.

2:07

And if you've listened to our show

2:07

on money in the outdoor sector,

2:11

you know exactly why that monetary

2:11

support is so important and

2:16

where the Patreon money goes

2:16

to. If you can't, I see you too.

2:21

Every listen of the podcast carries

2:21

so much weight and thank you for

2:25

choosing to listen to these

2:25

conversations and speaking of these

2:29

conversations, let's cut to the chase.

2:32

Here is our obligatory episode

2:32

on Kendall Mountain Festival

2:37

2022. Do you wanna do your introduction <laugh>?

2:47

I was just muting myself.

2:47

Right. Okay. Hi everyone,

2:51

I'm Ani Barber. I am a disabled outdoor

2:52

enthusiast who's passionate on

2:57

disability access and

2:57

inclusion in the outdoors.

3:00

I enjoy things like wild

3:00

swimming, climbing and hiking.

3:05

Beautiful. And obviously a lot of,

3:05

you'll probably recognize Annie's voice.

3:09

She's probably the second

3:09

most on the podcast.

3:13

I think you neglected to say that Annie,

3:17

that you are also the founder

3:17

of the blog Outside Our Way.

3:22

Oh yeah. Which is on the

3:22

All the Elements website.

3:26

And that's one of the reasons I'm gonna

3:26

speak to you today because as part of

3:29

your blog, you were uh, down in Kendall back in November

3:31

speaking to a few people

3:36

and I also got you to do a little bit

3:36

of on the outside work whilst you were

3:40

there. Do you wanna give us a little bit of a

3:41

rundown of your Kendall experience and

3:45

how that was and what you were

3:45

doing with outside our way?

3:48

Yeah, it was really cool. It's my

3:48

first Kendall experience actually.

3:53

So I didn't know what to expect, but it

3:53

definitely wasn't what I expected. Also,

3:58

I was there as part of sort of the press

3:58

doing a couple of interviews with two

4:03

of the disabled panelists, um,

4:06

that were doing a talk and that

4:06

was Ed Jackson and Darren Edwards,

4:10

both Epic guys. But also whilst I was there you had

4:12

me run around and ask people a few

4:16

questions for on the outside podcast.

4:19

And as I am like the

4:19

deputy of this podcast,

4:24

<laugh> <laugh>. Self-appointed, but I'll take it.

4:28

<Laugh>, self appointed,

4:28

self-appointed deputy, um,

4:30

I thought I'd run around and do it whilst I'm there. Yeah. Beautiful. So what

4:34

we are gonna do today,

4:37

you're asking people a couple of

4:37

different questions about their Kendall

4:40

experience and we're just gonna have some

4:40

talking heads from some of those folks

4:45

today. Who would you

4:45

like us to start with?

4:50

I do believe it was, uh, Jackson.

4:54

I spoke to Ed Jackson who for

4:54

those of you who don't know,

4:59

ed Jackson has a spinal cord injury.

5:02

Don't know the specific vertebra. Um,

5:02

he did tell me but I'm not aware of it.

5:07

And he ever since has been an advocate

5:12

for adaptive adventures

5:12

being outdoors with

5:17

his spinal cord injury. And originally he was told he'd

5:18

never be able to walk again and

5:23

he walked into the interview. So <laugh>,

5:23

he's done well for himself and he's,

5:28

you know, he's worked with Burke house

5:29

to do adaptive equipment

5:34

that he has. And he's a very,

5:36

very open guy about like how

5:36

his disability affects him,

5:41

not just with his hiking and moving but

5:41

also you know, his bladder and bowels,

5:46

his sexual functions, all sorts of

5:46

things like that, you know, really,

5:50

really goes into the deep of it and

5:50

encourages also other people to be

5:55

really open and honest about their

5:55

feelings and their emotions and what's

6:00

going on with them at the

6:00

moment. So pretty cool guy.

6:03

Yeah, lovely. And if you want to read more about

6:04

Annie's talk with Ed on those

6:09

aspects, she is gonna be writing up blogs from

6:10

the conversation she had at Kendall,

6:14

but for now we're just gonna listen

6:14

to Ed's forts on the Kendall Festival

6:19

itself. Um, so have you been to Kendall before?

6:23

I have. Last year was my first

6:23

year. Absolutely. Love it.

6:27

Last year was so weird for me cuz I was walking around. I'm quite new to this

6:29

world. Like I was in, I was a rugby player before and now

6:31

I'm two years basically in and out of

6:35

hospitals. So it's only really been three or four

6:35

years that I've been involved in this

6:38

sort of world. And uh, last year I came here for the first

6:39

time and it was that moment when all

6:42

Instagram handles became real

6:42

people. I was like, oh look,

6:45

it's anxious and adventurous and there's,

6:45

so it was bizarre cause they had only,

6:49

you'd only, especially cuz of Covid, you'd only really seen each other

6:50

through Yeah. Instagram handles.

6:53

So that was quite a bizarre sensation. And then it's nice coming back this year

6:55

knowing more people doing more things.

6:59

Like I'm doing a talk this afternoon,

6:59

um, on a, on adaptive adventure,

7:03

got my ticket, which I'm a bit nervous

7:03

about cuz my wife's there and um,

7:08

I'm showing some footage from a Nepal

7:08

climb I did earlier this year that nearly

7:12

went very, very wrong. So I I,

7:15

but I think it's important to

7:15

share both sides of the story,

7:17

not just the big successes and you know,

7:20

but she might tell me off it might be

7:20

the last time I'm allowed to go <laugh>.

7:23

<Laugh>. Well yeah, she

7:23

has to find out at some.

7:27

Point. Yeah, exactly. Breaking. The news to like a date before.

7:30

I know I've kind of,

7:30

she knows right, right.

7:32

But she hasn't actually seen yet and

7:32

I think it's quite intense some of it.

7:36

What have you enjoyed most so far

7:36

or looking forward to the most?

7:41

Actually I went to um, a session at 12 o'clock

7:43

yesterday where Cold House,

7:47

which is another boathouse session, but Cold House had adapted six films

7:48

and made them more accessible by

7:52

putting the subtitles, the audio

7:52

descriptions, sign language on them,

7:57

which is really cool in itself, right. Because it's not that expensive

7:59

to do for big media companies,

8:02

especially for big films. So there should, it makes sense that there should always

8:03

be those options for everything coming

8:06

out that should be mandatory. But the films are incredible that like

8:08

there was a film called Free to Run About

8:12

and which is a North Face monster

8:12

film about an ultrarunner who's um,

8:16

encouraging women in Afghanistan

8:16

to start running clubs. Um,

8:19

and it was just beautifully sharp and beautifully made. So that was a good start to Kendall.

8:22

But I love just wandering around the

8:22

base camp and bumping into people,

8:25

which is really nice. Cause I think in this outdoor community

8:26

you go off and you live in your own

8:29

different pockets or you live

8:29

all over the, in Kendall's case,

8:31

all over the world, you know, people come from. So it's often only here you get to come

8:33

and chill out with each other and hang

8:36

around with each other. So, um, those

8:36

have been the highlights so far.

8:39

Hopefully talk my uh, my session later

8:39

with Darren and Steve goes to plan.

8:44

Um, and that becomes a

8:44

highlight but who knows what 20.

8:48

<Laugh>, it's definitely something

8:48

I'm looking forward to. Um,

8:51

there's only two tickets I

8:51

bought and that was one of them.

8:53

Oh great. That's nice know. Thank you. Yeah. It's gonna be really cool. Um, yeah I

8:55

heard about the cult house thing was,

8:59

that was really impressive. They even got like looking for a BSL

9:01

climber that was top tier. Yeah. Um,

9:06

is there anything you'd like to

9:06

see done differently next year?

9:11

Not off the top of my head.

9:11

Oh, I'll tell you what, there,

9:14

there was a problem last night down,

9:14

this is very surface level, right?

9:17

There was a problem last night down

9:17

at the base camp because there's three

9:20

coffee stalls, which were amazing and one bar and then

9:21

when it turned to like seven o'clock to

9:25

keep the bar run right around the

9:25

whole thing and back inside. Um,

9:30

so more bars at the base camp.

9:30

Sure. So, so that, that's how,

9:33

that's how well they're doing. That's the only thing I can come up with. <Laugh> fantastic. Yeah. <laugh>,

9:36

I mean yeah it's not a problem if you've

9:36

got massive cues for them I suppose.

9:39

No. Yeah. So that was really interesting what

9:41

he spoke about with Cold House's film,

9:45

having the BSL there. Do you

9:45

have any thoughts on that Ani?

9:50

Yeah, no it was, I did hear about it that they were gonna

9:51

be doing something like it on Instagram

9:55

before. I think it's a

9:55

really good step forward.

9:58

It shows that the film just

9:58

wasn't just to show them this

10:02

disabled person, it was also to make it

10:02

accessible to their community, you know,

10:07

this deaf climber. And I do

10:07

think he's got a good point.

10:12

You know, we could, we be including captions in more

10:12

outdoor films if not all outdoor films

10:17

nowadays and perhaps even have B S L you

10:22

know, at more talks, more panels,

10:22

things like that. You know,

10:25

can we make these spaces a bit

10:25

more accessible in those cases?

10:30

So who's the next person

10:30

that we're gonna hear from?

10:34

Uh, the next person I spoke

10:34

to was Darren. Darren Edwards.

10:38

And he was a part of that

10:38

talk adaptive adventures

10:43

that Ed Jackson was hosting. Darren is also someone who's

10:46

had a spinal cord injury. Uh,

10:50

his was from a climbing accident. Um,

10:50

so he is always been a bit outdoorsy.

10:53

I think he, however, can't walk.

10:56

He is paralyzed I think from

10:56

the waist down and uses a

11:01

wheelchair. I mean he's

11:01

done some mega stuff. Uh,

11:04

he was part of,

11:07

or even ran I think this

11:07

kayaking expedition with like war

11:12

veteran and other spinal

11:12

cord injury and disabled folk

11:16

from Lanza to John o

11:16

Gros. And it was good.

11:21

I think he really enjoyed it and I,

11:24

I like the fact that he wasn't

11:24

an experienced guy. Okay.

11:27

He just kind of was like, okay, this is a way I can do a thing and

11:28

this is what I'm gonna do. And he was

11:31

actually quite not like the the

11:31

best at kayaking to begin with.

11:36

And he's also doing a ski

11:36

expedition I think with Ed Jackson.

11:40

That will be really cool to see because

11:40

they're both learning different ways to

11:44

adapt things for themselves cuz it's

11:44

not really been done before and it's not

11:49

common knowledge of how to make

11:49

things adaptive for them. So yeah,

11:53

pretty cool guy. Honestly the happiest

11:53

person you'll ever meet. Really positive.

11:56

It was really hard to have an interview

11:56

with him because we sat down and was

11:59

like, yeah so tell me about yourself. He

11:59

was like talking to me and I was like,

12:02

no, no, this is not the point of

12:02

the conversation <laugh>. But yeah,

12:07

really cool guy. Have you ever been to Kendall.

12:10

Before? It's my first year. Ah, mine too.

12:12

Yeah. Yeah. I've been really, I didn't know what to expect but it's

12:14

actually been brilliant. Really like it.

12:18

Fantastic. Um, what are you, what

12:18

have you enjoyed the most so far?

12:23

Or what are you like

12:23

most looking forward to?

12:25

What I've enjoyed the most in the four,

12:27

three hours I've experienced is in

12:27

base camp. Just like the people on,

12:31

on the stage. Like I, I

12:31

didn't look at the program,

12:34

I just sat and listened to two talks,

12:36

both which were really

12:36

fascinating in different ways.

12:39

And then I've looked at like there's so much on, isn't there so many different types of

12:41

speakers from your Canton cools that uh,

12:46

everybody knows Yeah. To

12:46

people that, you know,

12:48

I listen to someone that I've never heard

12:48

of before and now I've followed them

12:51

on social media and you

12:51

know, so I like that.

12:54

Fantastic. Yeah, there's so many different things and

12:55

so many people I've not heard of. Um,

12:59

is there anything you'd like to

12:59

see done differently next year?

13:03

Hm. Not from what I've seen. Not.

13:05

From what you see, no. Cool. Fine. Sweet. Hey step.

13:11

The next one we're gonna hear is really

13:11

interesting cuz this is Claire and Pip

13:15

who did a joint interview. Uh,

13:17

can you give us a little bit of a insight

13:17

into their relationship and how you,

13:22

how you got to know them? Yeah, so Claire and Pip

13:25

are mom and daughter,

13:29

Pip's daughter, Claire's mom and I met

13:31

Claire and Pip on the online

13:36

disability social that we

13:36

host, um, on all the Monds. Uh,

13:39

they've been a regular there, they've been very outspoken about

13:40

ways that would make things more

13:45

accessible for rare conditions

13:45

like Pippas as well as autism,

13:51

um, and learning disabilities. And when I saw that Clare and

13:52

Pip were going to Kendall and

13:57

also what their apprehensions

13:57

were about Kendall Mountain

14:02

Festival attending this year, I

14:02

wanted to see what they had to say.

14:07

I wanted to get their opinion and I also

14:07

thought it would be a good chance to

14:10

interview them for

14:10

outside our way as well.

14:14

What's your name? My name's Pip.

14:14

And are you happy to be recorded?

14:19

You have to say yes. <laugh> and my name's Claire Beton and

14:21

I'm happy to be recorded. I'm Pip's mom.

14:27

Have you been to. Kendall Mountain Festival before? Yes.

14:35

What have you enjoyed the

14:35

The parade. The parade?

14:41

Okey dokey. Anything else? Did you enjoy meeting anyone new

14:45

yesterday? Who did you meet yesterday?

14:50

You forgot? Yeah, I mean

14:50

you overwhelmed <laugh>,

14:55

you were so thrilled

14:55

meeting Cece yesterday.

14:57

Weren't you Another

14:57

adventurer to do things with?

15:03

Yeah. Who's and you can help

15:03

her and she can help you.

15:10

Final question and then I'll

15:10

let you go. Um, what would you,

15:16

what would you like to be

15:16

done differently next year?

15:20

Leave in college. Are you'll of left college won't you?

15:22

So you can come to the whole festival

15:28

and. What do you think could be

15:30

done by Kendall Mountain? Yeah,

15:33

do you remember the first time you

15:33

came there was a big truck cinema

15:39

and they showed the films with the

15:39

lights up as a relaxed performance.

15:43

Do you remember that? It

15:43

was great. Really good.

15:46

And they haven't got this year that

15:46

this year have they? Which is a shame.

15:50

It was called dementia-friendly

15:50

but it worked just as well for you

15:55

and that was really good. The other thing that'd be really good

15:57

is if we could plan ahead a bit more,

16:01

particularly if we could get the paper

16:01

program well in advance cuz it would

16:06

help you to mark things up or if we could

16:11

have a bit more indication

16:11

about whether something.

16:16

Is. Has a really complex plot.

16:20

<Laugh> or. Is visually and cognitively more

16:26

accessible. That's quite a big ask

16:26

and that would be quite cutting edge.

16:30

But it would be a really useful thing

16:30

because we have to plan and if PIP is

16:35

coming here next year with

16:35

your own personal assistant,

16:40

we may well have to plan around

16:40

shifts or move people in advance

16:45

and that is gonna be such a big challenge

16:45

isn't it? And mum will still be here,

16:49

don't worry, I'll still step in and help

16:49

but it'll be all new for us won't it?

16:54

Having new helper. And also it'd be nice to

16:57

have somewhere, somewhere,

17:02

somewhere or maybe a quiet hour

17:02

in the main tent to look at

17:07

the brands.

17:10

There's no way you can cope in that tent

17:10

for more than a minute or two. That's.

17:15

The base 10. Yeah. So to have a quiet tower in the

17:17

tent where there's no music or

17:23

you know, uh, speakers, uh, you know,

17:28

I'm practical enough to realize

17:28

that would have to be a,

17:30

a pretty antisocial time for everyone.

17:32

Else. Sorry. <Laugh>. A quiet, a quiet half hour or hour where you could

17:34

look at the brands and be guaranteed

17:39

peace and quiet in there so you

17:39

could concentrate and our friend John

17:44

who's going to take you around who's

17:44

blind also says the lighting in there is

17:48

dreadful. It's not great. No.

17:52

But other than that, you know, Kendall's

17:52

making a real effort to be inclusive,

17:56

which is great. That's all I need from you both.

17:59

Thank. You so much for taking the time

18:00

out and I bet that was hard.

18:04

I'm grateful prepared to sit still

18:04

for more than 20 minutes is amazing.

18:09

So well done you a for <laugh>. Oh no,

18:12

don't be silly for um,

18:14

both inviting us and you know,

18:20

thank you teasing stuff out

18:20

because it makes me think as well.

18:26

I think it'd be really nice. Annie, if you could just give us a little

18:28

bit of an insight as to how you

18:33

conducted that interview and if there

18:33

were any adjustments that you needed

18:37

to, to do to take into account

18:37

when you were doing that one.

18:42

Yeah so um, in the media room, which is,

18:46

well I did the interviews for

18:46

outside Our Way for all three of the

18:51

interviews you get a 30 minutes

18:51

slot but because pip can

18:56

get quite overwhelmed, um,

18:58

it can take time for her to

18:58

answer or to get to the bottom of

19:03

things that she might wanna say. I asked for a bit of a longer slot

19:06

and the media room very kindly said,

19:10

yeah you can have an hour. Which also

19:10

gave us time to have a break midway,

19:14

which we said we could do. We

19:14

paused, went and got a tea,

19:19

had a break, let pip you know,

19:22

just sit in silence for a little

19:22

bit and calmed down when she'd

19:27

started to shut off. Not when you

19:27

know, she was already not happy at all.

19:33

And just, just those two small things were like

19:33

a massive made made it a lot more

19:39

tolerable and, and I think

19:39

enjoyable for PIP and it,

19:44

it was easy things just

19:44

having a break for five,

19:47

10 minutes and adding an

19:47

extra half hour just made the

19:51

difference. Yeah, fantastic.

19:54

And obviously we have to say thank you

19:54

to the Kendall Media team for being

19:58

understanding of that extra need

19:58

there and I think you said that the

20:03

media room was much quieter than the

20:03

rest of the festival as well so it was a

20:07

little bit of a nice sit down

20:07

in a quieter area <laugh>.

20:11

Oh it was so nice. It was so I

20:11

don't, I wouldn't have survived that.

20:14

Please can I have a press thing again

20:14

next year Frank I'm not gonna survive it

20:18

again. I'll try. I promise

20:18

you I can't survive it.

20:22

I will try. I will try. So the next voice that you're gonna hear

20:26

is one that you will possibly recognize

20:30

from previous episodes. She is a friend of the on the outside

20:31

podcast and used to do the social media

20:36

for a little bit. Uh, this is Frankie

20:36

Jeweler's Forts on the Kendall Festival.

20:40

Have you been. To Kendall? Man. I've been my first timers four years

20:43

ago and I've been every year since

20:47

then ev all the festivals I think

20:47

this year has been my favorite

20:52

and like this, the first year I came I really loved

20:53

cause it was my first time and it was all

20:56

new and it's been really hard to top

20:56

that like new experience but this year

21:02

has just felt like such a huge

21:06

leap and the speakers, the

21:06

stories that I've heard,

21:10

the films that I've watched, there's been so many people that I've

21:12

been able to see myself in and really

21:17

relate to their stories. But also there's also been so many

21:19

people with a wildly different lived

21:23

experience to me and being able to get

21:23

an insight into their life and their

21:28

experience has been so

21:28

valuable and there's a real

21:33

sense of strength in the

21:33

change that is happening.

21:37

Like all these people working

21:37

in all these different areas.

21:40

I think when we come together you can

21:40

really see how much impact is actually

21:45

going on. Would you say it wasn't like that?

21:48

Like in the previous years have you seen

21:48

a change in the sense of there's been

21:51

an increase in that variety

21:51

of lived experiences just.

21:56

Absolutely, definitely. Uh, the sort of,

21:59

I had this real moment the other day I'd

21:59

been watching Amira talk about the new

22:04

track mates hab and how that is

22:04

basically a new piece of outdoors gear

22:09

that had not existed previously. And it,

22:12

and it was interesting because I'd gone

22:12

straight to that talk from a talk about

22:16

the opening up the outside program and

22:16

after Amira's talk I was going onto the

22:21

queer space. Those, the opening

22:21

up, the outside program,

22:25

the nicu, the queer space, these are all things that hadn't

22:27

even been thought up four years ago.

22:31

So to see them all in

22:31

existence now is amazing. Cool.

22:35

Um, what would you like to see D

22:37

like done differently next year?

22:42

I really appreciate how much the

22:42

festival is growing and changing.

22:47

I think that's incredible and actually

22:47

I think that potentially a lot of the

22:51

reason why the festival is growing

22:51

so much is because there are so many

22:54

different stories and

22:54

voices coming through.

22:58

But the more it grows the more

22:58

complicated it gets to book. And to see,

23:03

you know, to navigate the program

23:03

and book tickets on the website,

23:07

it can get really confusing. I've had a lot of people come in for

23:08

the first time saying that they're so

23:11

overwhelmed they dunno where to start. And so I think something there that could

23:14

help people simplify that process if

23:19

it's their first time, different

23:19

ways of navigating their website,

23:22

thinking about that journey for people

23:22

of how they actually access the sessions

23:27

that they really are passionate

23:27

about and want to go to in a way that

23:32

isn't stressful and isn't overwhelming

23:32

and doesn't make people feel before

23:36

they've even got here. Like they're

23:36

the ones doing something wrong.

23:40

Maybe even there could be something

23:40

around like a guide for people,

23:43

you know like if this is your first thing, here's some feedback from people

23:45

that have been before or you know,

23:49

it doesn't necessarily have

23:49

to be a whole new website,

23:52

it could just be like tips and

23:52

support for people or you know,

23:56

sort of like if you are a cyclist, here's five sessions you might be

23:57

interested in. If you're a runner,

24:00

if you're a swimmer, whatever it might be to just help people

24:02

who haven't been navigate it a little

24:06

bit easier. Perfect.

24:09

Uh, who are we gonna hear from next Annie?

24:12

So one of the other

24:12

people I spoke to was um,

24:17

another mother and child relationship,

24:20

<laugh> Amara and her son uf.

24:23

Originally I was only gonna interview

24:23

Amara but her son was like no I can do

24:27

this better. So we gave him a shot and he

24:28

did do quite well actually Amara

24:33

is a part of the boots and

24:33

beards group up in Scotland

24:37

and I believe she also helps run the

24:42

um, Bonnie Boots group,

24:45

which is like the women's

24:45

subset of boots and beards.

24:50

It was her first time at Kendall Mountain

24:50

Festival and she had a really good

24:54

opinion of how it was for her

24:54

as a Muslim woman with a child.

25:02

Yeah, I was looking forward to meeting all the

25:02

brands that were here at the festival,

25:05

getting to network, meeting new folk,

25:08

talk about what the work that we do

25:08

up in Scotland and it's been a great

25:12

opportunity to meet new faces.

25:16

I think next year I'd like to

25:16

see a little bit more diversity.

25:19

There was diversity this time round

25:19

but more representation of the Baam

25:23

community. Um, as nature has no color and

25:25

it's for everyone to access.

25:30

It was a very well organized

25:30

event. Um, they did really well.

25:33

However it wasn't really, it

25:33

was not that accessible. Uh,

25:37

everything was dotted around and

25:37

also there was a lack of halal food.

25:42

There was not really much

25:42

available And also um,

25:45

I noticed that there was no alcohol-free

25:45

drinks either for anyone who doesn't

25:49

drink for religious reasons

25:49

or for sober reasons. Um,

25:52

and I think it should be an inclu

25:52

that if we have halal food or

25:57

alcohol-free drinks then it'll

25:57

be a little bit more inclusive.

25:59

You just noticed that today? I don't noticed that today.

26:04

Come little ma'am. Okay. Okay.

26:04

I'm gonna ask you three questions.

26:10

How have you been to Kendall

26:10

Mountain Festival before?

26:13

No, never. Never been to Kendall

26:14

Mountain Festival. Okay. The worst thing that I

26:16

like was that you could do

26:21

these activities there like get

26:25

points or you could get

26:25

prizes or stuff like

26:30

that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

26:33

And what would you like to

26:33

be done better next year?

26:37

What I would like to be

26:37

doing better is that I

26:42

want like everything to be free.

26:45

Like because like when uh, you

26:45

have to get tickets for everything,

26:50

you have to pay for everything and uh,

26:54

everything was really busy too and

26:54

I wanted to not really be as busy

26:58

because that like the whole inside

26:58

of the tent was just busy like

27:03

most but mostly outside wasn't

27:03

really as busy as I thought.

27:08

Like crowded. Yeah, I

27:09

Agree. I agree. Cool. Thank you so much.

27:13

How I take this off? So we've got two more people to go.

27:19

So the next person is somebody I've

27:19

already interviewed for outside our way

27:24

Theora or the as she goes by,

27:24

I've known Thea for quite a while.

27:30

Uh, she reached out to me originally but

27:30

we met last year when she was down

27:35

this way from Scotland, um, when she

27:35

was coming to Women's Tra Festival.

27:40

Thea is undiagnosed

27:40

chronically ill so I really

27:45

love her perspective on things. She's

27:45

just a really nice person in general.

27:50

I've known her for a long

27:50

time and I wanted to see how

27:53

festival with her

27:53

symptoms in her condition.

27:57

Is this your first time at Kendall Mountain Festival? This is my first time at

27:59

Kendall Mountain Festival. Uh,

28:04

so far my favorite event

28:04

was the Spine Race for

28:09

Mountain, um, the film premiere.

28:12

It was a really good environment

28:12

and the film was great and

28:17

it was nice seeing everybody come up on

28:17

stage afterwards and kind of talk about

28:22

their experience doing the

28:22

race and also running the race.

28:26

Yeah, probably the film premier

28:31

I think next year if I could see more

28:35

representation from more

28:39

adaptive outdoor individuals. Um,

28:43

saw the talk with Ed Jackson

28:43

and I really, really enjoyed it.

28:49

However, I wish that they had someone

28:50

other than just men on it

28:55

and I also wish it wasn't

28:55

so accident focused

29:00

because I felt a bit like,

29:03

although one of them they did have like a

29:07

degenerative health condition,

29:10

they didn't seem to have

29:10

something that affected them like

29:15

previously as much. And even the speakers

29:17

themselves seemed to talk

29:21

mainly in an accident focused

29:26

way and I felt really excluded

29:26

during the talk just because like

29:31

really like important

29:31

stories and experiences.

29:36

But as someone who experiences

29:36

the outdoors and like a way

29:41

where I have to do adaptive

29:41

climbing and adaptive hiking and

29:46

everything, um, I feel like they could

29:46

have touched upon that a bit more.

29:51

Um, so next year it would be nice if

29:52

they had maybe a few more talks and

29:57

was a bit more inclusionary

29:57

of people other than

30:02

men. And the last person that you had a,

30:08

a proper chat with about the

30:08

Kendall Festival was Katie?

30:13

Yeah, I know Katie through Thea.

30:17

I'd never met Katie before but I mean I

30:17

wish I'd spoken to her more cause she's

30:21

cool <laugh>. Um, she was the companion of Thea

30:24

at Kendall Mountain Festival and

30:29

she was obviously very

30:29

conscious of Thea, um,

30:31

which was nice to see and also nice to

30:31

hear a different perspective on that.

30:35

So yeah, this is what she had to say. This is my first time at Kendall

30:39

Mountain Festival. Very exciting <laugh>.

30:45

Um, and what have you liked, what have you enjoyed about. Festival? Um,

30:48

it's really lovely to be have a sort of

30:48

central location where people have got

30:52

so many different passions but

30:52

all about the outdoors in nature,

30:56

all in one kind of space for these kind

30:56

of collective few days in particular.

31:01

The spine race film I thought

31:01

was really, really lovely.

31:04

I sort of a representative of the weekend

31:04

for me because I love the passion of

31:08

the race organizers, the people that

31:08

are crazy enough to compete in it.

31:12

But from that and only did we see the

31:12

amazing runners like Jasmine Paris.

31:15

We also saw the amazing runners who don't

31:15

necessarily win but are there as well.

31:20

And I just thought that I was really

31:20

pleased to see a film that was about the

31:23

race in its entirety and it was also

31:23

about the volunteers that put the tea out,

31:26

um, for people as they pass by and I thought

31:27

that was a real celebration of what it

31:31

can mean to be interested in the

31:31

outdoors and doing these kind of events,

31:34

not just who came first who made the

31:34

podium. So I really enjoyed that.

31:38

Hi. Um, I think there's definitely a move

31:40

towards a good variety in terms of the

31:43

programming. I think that I could kind of see the

31:44

efforts that have been made in terms of

31:46

who's asked to speak and

31:46

things like that. I kind of,

31:49

in terms of like the core

31:49

values of the festival,

31:54

I'm kind of wondering what they are

31:54

at the end of this kind of weekend.

31:56

I don't know if I could kind of give

31:56

you three words that sum up it from the

31:59

organizers. So I wonder if they kind

31:59

of know themselves and would like,

32:02

like to make that really clear. There was a big move from

32:03

all the sustainability,

32:05

from a lot of the sponsors

32:05

and things here this year.

32:08

But in terms of what that then means

32:08

when they're also here to sell new kit,

32:11

I'm just, I'm intrigued by that

32:11

element of the festival. <laugh>,

32:16

thank you very much. And more

32:16

female toilets, <laugh>? Yes.

32:21

We need her more just like emphasize. And.

32:23

More female toilets. If we could also have more female

32:24

toilets please or gender neutral.

32:27

I'm very happy with either solution. Very much.

32:31

Thank you Katie for giving us a, a

32:31

short interview there. Fantastic.

32:36

Now we do have one more voice

32:36

for this episode that I would be

32:40

remiss to not put in. Annie,

32:44

who was the last person that you spoke to?

32:48

Um, the last person is

32:48

Matt Barber, my husband.

32:53

Now being recorded please can you say

32:53

your name and then you're happy to be

32:57

recorded? Matt Barber. I'm happy to

32:57

be recorded. Thank you very.

33:00

Much. Have you been to

33:00

Kendall Mountain Festival.

33:02

Before? I have not been to Kendall

33:02

Mountain Festival before. We.

33:05

Don't have to make it sound like I'm like making it. Converter <laugh>.

33:08

A ransom video. I have not been to Kendall Mountain

33:10

Festival before. Thank you <laugh>.

33:16

I've enjoyed meeting people I've

33:16

already known but don't see often.

33:22

Okay. I'd like to see more halal food. Thank you Matt for giving us a

33:25

little bit of your voice there.

33:29

Obviously we hear from Annie quite a lot

33:29

on the podcast but Matt is there in the

33:34

background supporting her quite a lot as

33:34

well so it's nice to give him a little

33:37

bit of mike time. And of course he did mention food cuz

33:40

that's just all he really is obsessed with

33:45

<laugh> food, football.

33:45

And then me <laugh>.

33:49

Annie, thank you so much for

33:49

taking your time during the,

33:52

the festival to do some of those

33:52

interviews. It's really nice to get a a,

33:56

a bit of a range of voices just

33:56

telling us what they thought.

34:00

Both people that have been to the festival

34:00

before and people that are going for

34:03

the first time. Uh, do you

34:03

have anything in particular to,

34:08

to kind of like round us off with your

34:08

own thoughts for what you learned or any

34:12

of the events that you went to

34:12

that you particularly enjoyed?

34:17

I will say I was a bit worried cuz I

34:17

knew that it was sort of throughout the

34:21

entire Kendall town and I was

34:21

a bit worried about how I would

34:26

be getting from one place to the

34:26

next, to the next to the next.

34:30

But it wasn't actually that far away

34:30

from each other. I was often going from,

34:35

I can't remember the name of it, but where the media room was an art

34:36

thingy and then it's just down the road to

34:41

base camp and it was quite easy to

34:41

do that and I didn't find it too

34:46

much of a trouble for me. It was a

34:46

lot busier than I thought it would be.

34:52

I think my advice for first

34:52

time goers of Kendall is when I

34:56

went I was like, oh

34:56

it's gonna be a breeze.

34:59

I've not really got many people to see. I've not got anything to do.

35:00

I'm not doing any of the like,

35:03

I'm not doing any of the panel

35:03

stuff or anything like that.

35:06

I'm not on the panels or anything so it'll

35:06

be a breeze cuz so many people I knew

35:11

were dashing about for work-related

35:11

reasons. That is not true.

35:15

It is a bit busy <laugh>. You will always somehow find

35:17

a way for the time to just go

35:22

and disappear and next thing you

35:22

know you are running to the next talk

35:26

or finding yourself trying to see one end

35:31

of base camp and then

35:31

having to go get a coffee,

35:34

then getting back to the other base

35:34

camp. It's just time goes quick,

35:37

time goes really quick. But

35:37

it is, it is a good fun place.

35:41

It was really easy to just go into a

35:41

pub if I needed to have some downtime

35:46

and get a cup of tea in there, plug my

35:46

phone in, do whatever. It was decent.

35:51

Yeah. Fantastic. And I need the media

35:53

room pass please. Fran. <Laugh>. Here you go. Kendall

35:56

folks, you've heard it here first.

36:00

Please give us a media pass again next

36:00

year and hopefully next year I'll be able

36:05

to attend as well. Thank you to everyone who gave

36:11

their thoughts on the festival,

36:15

Darren Ed, Frankie Claire, and Pip Amara and Usif via

36:17

Katie and of course Matt.

36:23

We have of course put all the links to

36:23

those in the notes for this episode along

36:28

with a link to the Kendall Mountain

36:28

tour that is taking place at the moment.

36:33

And if you're not able to attend

36:33

any of the events in person,

36:36

the Kendall Mountain player

36:36

is available online as well.

36:41

In other news, Kendall Mountain Tour is not the

36:47

only film festival of the moment.

36:52

Last week the Fort William Mountain

36:52

Festival took place from the 16th to the

36:56

19th of February, and that's an event up in Fort William

36:58

in Scotland that has films as well as the

37:03

Mountain Culture Awards. This year included the

37:05

first Golden Acts award,

37:09

which is in memory of filmmaker Rob Brown

37:14

and the London Mountain

37:14

Film Festival starts today.

37:18

So that's a streaming festival that

37:18

goes on until the 5th of March.

37:22

The short list of the films are really

37:22

good this year and includes stories like

37:27

skateboarding in the Scottish Highlands,

37:30

adaptive Adventures from the

37:30

Adventurer, Kate Applebee.

37:34

There are also community screenings

37:34

and they've got screenings across the

37:38

country and one screening

37:38

this year in Nairobi,

37:42

in Kenya as well. Find out [email protected].

37:47

The link is of course in

37:47

the show notes as well.

37:51

That is all for today.

37:54

A massive thank you to Annie for

37:54

recording those conversations at Kendall.

37:59

I hope that you enjoyed hearing

37:59

some diverse views on the

38:03

event. On the outside is hosted,

38:03

produced, and edited by me.

38:08

Francesca Toski artwork

38:08

is by Sophie Nolan.

38:12

The music is Bass Beats by Alex

38:12

Norton and on the outside is

38:17

part of the Tremor Network

38:17

Adventure and Outdoor Podcasts

38:22

off the Beaten Track. To find out more about that

38:24

head to tremor.network and

38:29

keep an eye on our socials for

38:29

some exciting news later on

38:33

this month.

38:33

And of course,

38:36

thank you all for listening.