Meet the team
As a four-strong team, we all oversee different areas of the festival, working to our strengths, each of us bringing our unique skills and talents to the table.
Charlie Low
Charlie organised the first festival with Ellie in 2016. Last year she quit her full-time job to start her own business, Climbingvan, to help self-build van converters with their campervan conversions. The first step of this journey involved writing a book, The Van Conversion Bible. She is also a freelance outdoor & events photographer. She loves spending her time on sea cliffs, in the mountains, & sport climbing in the sunshine. She is currently travelling around Europe in her big yellow Mercedes Sprinter, Ringo.
Ellie Fuller
Ellie hatched the idea for Women’s Trad Festival while climbing at Gogarth on the Women’s International Meet in 2016. She has recently completed a masters in Nature-Based Education at Sheffield Hallam and is a Forest School Leader. She now works in the woods as a bushcraft & nature-connection facilitator. She also works with The Children's Forest planting trees with children. In her free time, Ellie loves hunting out adventurous trad climbs on sea-cliffs and mountains, spending time in the woods, and swimming.
Gilly McArthur
Gilly has been part of the WTF team since its 2nd year. She has worked in the outdoor industry for over 20 years, and is now a freelance artist and illustrator alongside working for DMM Climbing. She also does a range of creative, film and consultant work in the outdoor industry and beyond around climbing and wild swimming. When not working, she is a passionate advocate of cold water swimming and its mental health benefits. Look out for her in a frozen icy tarn high up in the hills of the Lake District in midwinter! She is also a part of the Wonderful Wild Women tribe (@wonderfulwildwomen).
Hetty Key
Hetty joined the Women's Trad Festival team in 2018, having previously supported the festival through her role at Rab. 9 to 5 she runs and manages the independent research project Women in Adventure. This is currently investigating how and to what extent the outdoors impacts the lives and mental wellbeing of women who participate in adventure sports (read more here). When not working, she can typically be found running up hills, jumping in cold rivers, falling off her bike or faffing around with climbing gear!