Dave MacLeod, left, and Tim Emmett celebrate their Big Climb

The team behind the recent live broadcast of the BBC’s The Big Climb will be one of the main draws at this year’s Kendal Mountain Festival.

Dave MacLeod, arguably Britain’s best rockclimber, tackled the huge overhang of Sròn Uladail on Harris in front of the cameras and completed the climb with Tim Emmett in the nick of time in the biggest live outside broadcasting of climbing since the celebrated 1967 screening of the ascent of the Old Man of Hoy.

MacLeod will be on hand with filmmaker Richard Else, commentator Cameron McNeish and safety adviser Brian Hall to tell the behind-the-scenes tales of the mammoth climb.

A spokesperson for the Kendal Festival, which boasts it is now the biggest of its kind in Europe, said: “As you can imagine, filming an extreme climb on a continuously overhanging 600ft cliff live for TV didn’t always go according to plan!

“What viewers didn’t realise was that the film team had shot extensive footage beforehand of Dave and Tim climbing five new extreme routes on five different islands in five days – the Triple 5 Challenge – with the footage held in reserve just in case the weather didn’t cooperate for the outside broadcast.”

The unseen footage will be on show at Kendal, and Mr McNeish will also talk about a new long-distance challenge trail he has devised through the Outer Hebrides.

Mark Beaumont

Al Lee, whose film of Leo Houlding’s adventures climbing and Base jumping off a Baffin island big wall in The Asgard Project picked up numerous awards, will premiere The Prophet, again featuring Houlding, whose base is just a few miles from Kendal, in ‘the wildest climb I’ve ever been on’, scaling El Capitan in Yosemite.

The event kicks off on the Friday night with a performance with musicians Anni Hogan and Robert Strachan playing a live set featuring South African mountaineer and explorer Cathy O’Dowd. A live soundtrack set to imagery created from O’Dowd’s original film footage from her two Everest ascents is followed by Cathy presenting Himalayan Challenges: Lhotse and Everest Kangshung Face.

There will also be a John Horsman talk-show event, Marmot Night – The Slackers’ Guide to Climbing featuring top British climbers Lucy Creamer and Steve McClure on the sofa. The Kendal spokesperson said: “We’re promised laughter, tears and everything in between – and that’s just from John”

Others on the bill for the three-day event include Peter Habeler, climbing partner to Reinhold Messner; Tim Macartney-Snape the first person to walk and climb from sea level to the summit of Everest; Basque brothers Eneko and Iker Pou; record-breaking long-distance cyclist and documentary maker Mark Beaumont talking about his latest quest cycling from Alaska to Argentina; Outdoor Swimming Society founder Kate Rew, and Glen Plake a legendary American freestyle skier and extreme ski pioneer well known for his Mohican hairstyle.

The event runs from 18 to 21 November. More details are available on the festival’s website.