Keswick Mountain Festival adds 3k swim to programme

In addition to the 1500m Derwent Island Swim, the organisers of the Keswick Mountain Festival (KMF) have added a 3km swim to the programme for 2016.
KMF takes place from 19 to 22 May and this year celebrates its tenth anniversary. The event features a range of outdoor activities including trail running, hiking, wild camping and mountain biking alongside live music and inspirational speakers. Last year the festival attracted 17,000 visitors of which more than 2,000 took part in one or more of the sporting activities.

The open water swim features a deep-water start from where participants will swim across to Derwent Isle before returning along the shore of Derwentwater and finishing back at the festival village.
As the 1.5km swim takes place on Saturday 21 May and the 3.0km on the Sunday, keen open water swimmers could easily do both. Alternatively, you could consider combining the swim with another outdoor activity as H2Open editor Jonathan Cowie will be doing as he pursues his joint passions for swimming and ultra-running.

Lucy Scrase, KMF sports director, says this year’s festival will be particularly significant in light of the recent flooding and extensive storm damage in the Lake District. She also hopes the range of sporting events will encourage people to stick to their New Year’s resolutions and have something to train for.
“Every year, we resolve to make Keswick Mountain Festival bigger and better,” she says. “I think that this line up of events will provide something to work towards for anyone whose own new year’s resolution is to get more active. That’s particularly important this year and we really hope that people will get behind these events and help Keswick to bounce back in a big way after the terrible flooding last month.”
For the full programme and further details please see: www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk