If Kendal Mountain Festival taught us anything in 2024, it is that understatement has no place in the Lakes. So when 2025 arrived bigger, louder and more ambitious than ever, Brandwave was ready.
From our arrival on Wednesday night to Sunday’s farewells, Kendal delivered what it always promises: a heady mix of outdoor culture, community, creativity and truly offensive temperatures. Naturally, Brandwave showed up in full force, with activations, events, ideas, and just about enough layers to take on the north.
Thursday, festival day one, opened with Outdoor Connections, bringing together brand leaders, creators and change-makers to explore where outdoor storytelling is heading next.
Conversations ranged from how brands connect with communities without sounding like they are trying too hard, to the ever-present question of whether AI elevates creativity or slowly flattens it. Brandwave founder Daniel Macaulay’s keynote, Artificially Intelligent or Already Irrelevant, did exactly what it promised and had enough challenging questions to keep the bar debates going well into the weekend.
The room buzzed with discussion around purpose versus profit, long-term community building in a short-term metrics world, and how the outdoor industry can protect its soul while still paying for decent coffee.
We also brought BrandLAB to Outdoor Connections, our sports marketing and networking concept built around open discussion rather than formal presentations. Bringing together VIP guest mentors from leading global brands, it created a space for honest conversation around the ideas shaping the sports and outdoor industries.
That evening, the Merrell x Brandwave Industry Insiders Party shifted gears. With DJ sets, cold beers and our now-legendary music gameshow Famous First Words, hosted by Tim Warwood, the night found the sweet spot between networking and forgetting you were meant to be networking.
Think creative directors arguing over intro lyrics, brand managers discovering a worrying amount of confidence, and everyone pretending they were “just here for one”.
Friday morning began the only sensible way it could. With a run, and mild regret. Our Brandwave Shakeout Run from No-Hands Rest Coffee saw a crew of trail shoes and brave faces take on a scenic five kilometre loop around Kendal and up to Kendal Castle, before collapsing gratefully into post-run coffee and pastries.
Later that day, things shifted from social to significant with the inaugural Merrell Fund Live inside the YETI Yurt. Hosted by Daniel Macaulay, four UK charities were given a platform to share their work supporting access, inclusion and connection to the outdoors.
After live presentations and audience voting, Bendrigg was named the winner of the £5,000 Merrell Fund grant, recognised for its work making outdoor adventure accessible to people with disabilities through residential programmes, active learning and life-changing experiences in nature.
The night continued with the Brandwave Pizza Party at Sapore, a Kendal institution filled with good food, better conversation and an increasing number of loud voices from across the industry. For the brave (or the unwell), there was still time to head to the Merrell Trail Sonified, a rave powered by Strava trail data that started at 10pm and rolled on until 1am. Some team members even managed to fit in a second pizza of the night, proving that recovery nutrition knows no moral boundaries.
Saturday brought an even colder kind of challenge. The team headed out with Vango and Camp Wild for wild swimming in near-freezing water, followed by a wild sauna session courtesy of PortaSauna. Somewhere between cold shock, steam and existential reflection, minds cleared, conversations softened and circulation slowly returned – partly, also, thanks to the coffee.
From there, the Wonderful Wild Women Hike in partnership with Merrell Hike Club took a collective of women into the Cumbrian hills for a morning of movement, connection and time in nature. Less about pace and more about presence, with big views and good conversation doing most of the work.
The afternoon unfolded at KMF Basecamp on the Fjällräven stand, where the team spent time learning more about our newest client and chatting with festival-goers about products, sustainability and life outdoors. This was followed by The Slow Adventure Session, presented by Fjällräven in the main arena, offering a considered pause among the festival’s busy energy.
Later came our Together In Nature activation, bringing together those who attended the Camp Wild x Vango Into the Wild get-together earlier this year for a chance to reconnect, swap stories and feel slightly smug about being part of something wholesome.
And as if that wasn’t quite enough for one weekend, Daniel Macaulay closed things out by hosting a live Stories for the Future podcast with filmmaker Dan O’Neill. Together they explored the role of AI, ethics and conservation in film and television, and how technology can support storytelling rather than hinder.
From early morning runs to late-night dancefloors, big conversations to freezing swims, Kendal Mountain Festival 2025 felt bigger, sharper and more layered than ever.
For Brandwave, it was about showing up, listening, collaborating and contributing to a space we care about deeply. And if we learned anything again, it is that when you bring the right people together in the right place, something great always happens.
