THE GREAT OUTDOORS

How next month’s Festival of the Outdoors celebrates Sheffield’s sense of adventure and the many local businesses inspired by it…

Sheffield is a place where nature and culture intertwines, where people and peaks unite to revel in the joys of ‘The Outdoor City’. Taking place throughout March, The Festival of the Outdoors brings together a whole host of events and activities celebrating nature and adventure on our doorstep.

Mark Mobbs, marketing manager at Sheffield City Council, explained the inspiration behind the event: “Sheffield has the highest percentage green space of any city in the world, but as England’s fourth largest city with over 600,000 people and a rich cultural heritage, we are also a thriving and dynamic place with loads going on.

“The Outdoor City tries to embody the fact we have nature and culture hand in hand, and the Festival of the Outdoors is our way of showcasing that uniqueness as spring opens the outdoors up to us all. It’s amazing that we have all these incredible events, from the international to the local community level, and all we are doing is trying to promote them to a wider audience to help those independent businesses and showcase why Sheffield is such a great place to live, work or visit.”

On top of the eight headliners, the festival will feature various family, specialist and cultural events to get involved in across the whole of the month: skateboard jams down at Castlegate, forest bathing in Graves Park, introductory mountain bike sessions across the Western Moors of Sheffield and guided city centre tours exploring Sheffield’s political past – that’s just a small taste of what you can get stuck into. While high participation rates in outdoor activity – particularly for walking, running and cycling – has clear positive impacts for health and social wellbeing, Sheffield’s reputation at The Outdoor City also provides a welcome boost for business and the local economy, whether that’s through creating jobs, attracting people to come and live in the city or generating footfall for businesses during events that fall under The Outdoor City banner.

For example, Sheffield is known as the UK’s ‘Climbing Capital’ with an estimated 10,000 climbers living in the city, some of whom have moved here specifically to indulge their love of the sport. Graeme Alderson, cofounder of Climbing Works on Little London Road, tells us that he was one such pilgrim.

“I came here for university, but really, I came here to go climbing! For decades now Sheffield has had a great climbing scene and attending university was a great way of exploring it. There’s a large number of high-standard climbers who’ve moved here for climbing, just as the three directors of Climbing Works did.”

Climbing Works opened in 2006, then offering the biggest bouldering wall in Europe, and has since gone on to host their annual Climbing Works International Festival (CWIF), bringing experienced climbers from across the world to the city. Not only does it continue to ensure Sheffield remains firmly on the map when it comes to climbing credentials, it means international visitors can get a taste of Steel City hospitality, too.

“The other year we had some Japanese and American climbers come over, so we made sure to look after them properly. On the Friday night before the CWIF we’ll take a lot of attendees out for a meal, and we’ve had some climbers express interest in coming back to visit Kasmiri Aroma!”

Another headline event taking place next month is Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF), which brings 100 of the best new adventure, travel and extreme sports films from around the world to the big screen in Sheffield. Partnering with Showroom Cinema, and often a number of other venues across Sheffield centre, the events draws large crowds of festival- goers to town and partners with local outdoor businesses to promote how people can get involved on their doorstep.

After a tricky couple of years due to the pandemic, the festival is now back to full strength and founder Matt Heason is feeling positive about its future. “These stories are actually of interest to everybody,” says Matt. “The Made In Sheffield has been a really strong category; we’ve got the whole Made In Sheffield Climb Films screening, so it would be nice to think that ShAFF is instrumental in helping push forward that agenda and take it even further. We’ve also got a relationship with Sheffield Hallam University and their film course. If the film course could start attracting adventure filmmakers from around the country to come to Sheffield to study and submit their films to ShAFF, that would be a nice story.”

So, from film festivals and live showcases of climbing brilliance, to outdoor independent markets like Pollen and the opportunity to learn about (and enjoy a pint in!) heritage pubs on guided walks during Sheffield Beer Week, the Festival of the Outdoors perfectly encapsulates the varied potential of The Outdoor City brand: how environment and economy can work hand in hand towards a more prosperous future. For a full list of FOTO events, head to www.welcometosheffield.co.uk.