A WEEKEND-LONG celebration of outdoor activity is coming to the west Dorset coast, and adventure seekers are being invited to get involved.

The 2020 South West Outdoor Festival (SWOF) will be held at Golden Cap and features everything from trail running, mountain biking and kayaking through to axe throwing, yoga, wild food foraging, star gazing, local food and drink and live music.

The event will take place on the highest point on the south coast - owned by the National Trust - over the weekend of September 18 to 20, which boasts wonderful views of the Jurassic Coast. Water sports, including stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking will take place at Seatown under the umbrella of the festival.

Organised by the National Trust, the annual adventure festival was launched on Exmoor in 2016 and has travelled to a new site within the region each year, with weekend campers and day visitors invited to come along and explore the trails, tales, ales and aquatic adventures possible at each location.

Past festivals have featured guest speakers, including TV presenter and expedition leader Monty Halls, round-the-world adventurers Sarah Outen and Conrad Humphreys, Paralympian Mel Nicholls and many more. This year’s confirmed speakers include record-setting ultra-runner Damian Hall, expedition adventurer Anna McNuff - who recently ran the length of Britain barefoot - and multi-award-winning Natural History Museum palaeontologist Susannah Maidment, with many more to be announced soon.

Outdoor skills sessions, campfire cooking, story-telling and live music also feature in the packed programme and the pop-up event village will have vendors tempting festivalgoers with local food and drink.

Hannah Jefferson, National Trust general manager for north and west Dorset, said; “We can’t wait to host the 2020 South West Outdoor Festival. It’s a golden opportunity to show off the fantastic terrain, trails and coastline we look after here and introduce people to a side of the Jurassic Coast they might not have seen before.”

Day and weekend tickets are now available at nationaltrust.org.uk, where there is also more information.