We are delighted that the Dartmoor Walking Festival will be returning in 2025, re-envisioned by new organisers as the Dartmoor Outdoor Festival. The DPA will be supporting the festival as one of the lead partners, alongside the Dartmoor National Park Authority. Both our Ecologist and Land Manager, Luke Sutton, and our Comms Officer, Helen Bruce, will be leading family friendly walks as part of the event.
Dartmoor Walking Festival started in 2016 in order to have an annual event celebrating walking on Dartmoor. Simon Dell ran the festival since its inception, and it has taken place annually since 2016 with the exception of 2020 (because of covid). To date, the festival has consisted of a series of guided walks, run by individual guides all over Dartmoor in order to showcase some of the best areas Dartmoor has to offer. Over the years, the festival has raised over £10,000 for its chosen charity, Devon Air Ambulance.
Coinciding with his decision to step down as Director of Moorland Guides earlier this year, Simon Dell also decided that 2024 would be his last year running the festival. He has passed the reins over to his successor Hannah Durdin and local outdoor instructor, expedition leader, Mountain Leader and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Richard Matthews. Hannah and Richard are developing the festival into a larger event and with this in mind, have rebranded it to become the Dartmoor Outdoor Festival. This change reflects their desire to take the festival beyond just walking to showcase the best of what Dartmoor has to offer.
They’re currently putting together a programme that includes workshops, climbing, live music, family friendly events (including their very own Festival letterbox trail), film showings, running events and of course, plenty of walks! In 2025, the festival will run from Friday 29th August – Friday 5th September. Princetown will be the hub of the festival, but there will also be opportunities across all 368 square miles of the moors to get involved with.
The goal of this festival is to sustainably highlight the recreational activities that can be enjoyed on Dartmoor, to encourage engagement from those in the surrounding area and to boost tourism. There will be a strong focus on sustainability and accessing Dartmoor responsibly, on making engagement as affordable and accessible as possible, and on celebrating the community of Dartmoor.
Given the inspiring aims and scope of the festival, it feels like the perfect partnership opportunity for the DPA. Promoting and enabling responsible access to Dartmoor is one of our core aims and we are delighted to be working alongside many other members of the community to showcase the culture, history and recreation opportunities which this unique landscape has to offer. We’ve been pleased to work alongside Hannah in the past, both in a collaboration with the Museum of Dartmoor Life and as part of our Future Leaders event in partnership with Campaign For National Parks. The 2025 Dartmoor Outdoor Festival is already shaping up to be an unmissable event, for locals and tourists alike, and we are looking forward to watching it grow.