ULTRA festival is our way of celebrating World Ultrarunning Day. It’s a weekend of talks and panel discussions with ultrarunners from all around the world, each with years of experience and so much knowledge to offer.
Two versions of Ultra Festival previously took place in the UK in 2016 and 2017, with ultrarunners from all around the world descending on fields in Wiltshire and Somerset, for a weekend of good-natured chat, food and… yeah, maybe a few drops of alcoholic beverages.
It came about because we realised that there are very few opportunities to socialise with other ultrarunners. When we’re around other ultrarunners we’re usually either 1) nervous before a race, 2) taking part in a race, or 3) asleep or heading home (or maybe even being carried home) following a race. And yet we long to find other like-minded people; we belong to a community of people who the average person would consider ‘weird’, or maybe even ‘insane’. How many times have you heard someone say “You must be mad to do that,” or “I would struggle to drive that far!” When we’re together with other runners in a race, though, nothing feels more normal than running 30, 50, 100 miles or more. And in those fields, during the talks and coaching sessions and eating and drinking, stories were told, ideas were shared, adventures were planned.
“Some of the world’s top ultrarunners and personalities were there, giving talks, sharing advice and larking about.”
Previous ultra festival attendee
So we thought, what better way to celebrate the inaugural World Ultrarunning Day than by staging the third Ultra Festival. Luckily, everyone else seems to agree with us – so we have some of the best-known and most capable ultrarunners involved, for example:
The cost is minimal and we’re running this as a not-for-profit, we just need to cover the fairly modest cost of the website hosting fees. Any profits we make will go to one of three charities or causes associated with our sport:
Chris Lewis, Patterdale Mountain Rescue
Greg’s Hut roof repairs
Etc
Tickets are available now for £5 for the whole weekend – that’s activities on the evening of Friday 30th April, and throughout the day and evenings of Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd May 2021.
We understand that Covid is affecting everyone in different ways, and we would like to offer a free ticket to anyone who needs it, no questions asked or judgements made. Just email us and let us know, and by response we’ll provide you with a personalised code to access the festival.
For those who can afford a little more, we also have a “Pay It Forward” ticket for £10 which will get you access to the festival, but will pay for one more person to attend who cannot afford it. There’s nothing else on offer for this except for extra respect and karma having done a good thing for someone else.
