It will soon be time once more for our historic seafaring town to ring out with music and song as the Harwich International Shanty Festival approaches its 20th year! This year’s exciting programme of entertainment takes place from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th October and begins at 11am on the Ha’penny Pier. Mrs. Jennifer Tolhurst will launch the Grand Opening accompanied by Richard Bench, the Town Crier and there will be a visit from the KS2 School Choir of All Saints Primary School, Great Oakley as well as further shanty singing to get the festival off to a rousing start. Artists will be coming to Harwich from the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, the USA and all over the UK. Entertainment will take place at local pubs and clubs, St. Nicholas Church, Esplanade Hall, The Electric Palace, Harwich Museum, Ebenezer Chapel, the Ha’penny Pier, the Thames Barge ‘Victor’ and at the Redoubt Napoleonic Fort and the Beacon Hill Fort. There will be concerts, sing around sessions, workshops, illustrated talks, guided walks, maritime crafts, street theatre and enactments, and a large majority of the events are free!
We have our popular ‘Singing in Tongues’ concert where some of our international guests perform in their native tongues. Families and children will find plenty to do with events in the Redoubt as well as Seaside Explorers sessions at the beach, Shadow Puppetry for aspiring young pirates and new Shanty Singing workshops for accompanied children. There will be some fantastic artists coming this year, including The Johnson Girls, a renowned a Capella song group from the USA singing a variety of maritime songs from different cultures. We are so pleased they are finally coming, after booking them for the 2020 festival which was cancelled due to Covid. Back by popular request are Nordet from their home port of Lorient in Brittany who perform worldwide, singing shanties and sea songs in French, Breton and English accompanied by guitar, melodeon and Uillean pipes. We welcome the return of Northcape, a five strong group from Poland, singing shanties, sea songs and folk songs with beautiful harmonies. We also managed to secure the Wilson Family, a well-established English a Capella folk music group from Billingham, County Durham in the Northeast. Since forming in 1974 they have become famed for their amazing harmonies. We welcome Sailor Swift for the first time, a folk singer who writes his own material. His fast-paced show with a nautical flavour is going down a storm all over the country and provides a hilarious quick-fire journey through history! Other highlights include Hooligans Rule performing for the first time – a lively nautical duo from Brixham, and Dick Miles, a well-respected English Concertina player. The popular Monkey’s Fist return by popular request from Oxford, a lively band playing traditional shanties with excellent harmonies. Bell and Co will be joining us – a trio performing their own sea songs accompanied by guitar, fiddle and bodhran. We also welcome the Portsmouth Shanty Men, an a Capella group who have sung traditional shanties and maritime songs for many years. Also from Portsmouth are Spinnaker Shanty singing shanties and sea songs with harmony and humour.
Northcape
Returning favourites include UK regulars Swinging the Lead, Hogeye Men, Tyburn Road, Chris Roche, Motley Crew, Mains’l Haul, Felixstowaways, Hoy Boy, Fire and Ice, Two Bitts, Sloop Groggy Dogs, Shantyfolk, Goldhanger Shanty Crew, Dazzle, Salt Water and Beer, Isle ‘ave a Shanty, Impressed, Shotley Crue, Five Men Not Called Matt, Shotley Wailers and The Hoolies. We also have our own Harwich based crews, Black Deep, Harwich Shanty Crew, Golden Rivets, Rattlin’ Winches, The Mutinous Swans, Harwich Sing and the Dovercourt Ukelele Group.
A Pint of Shandy are back with their hilarious show, H.M.S. Conqueror, an entertaining musical journey telling the story of H.M.S. Conqueror’s role in the battle of Trafalgar. This was a sell-out show at our 2023 festival, now rewritten with new material and songs, but the same outstanding performance.
A 90-minute trip aboard the Thames Sailing Barge ‘Victor’ featuring entertainment from our festival guests is always a highlight of the weekend. There will also be a Shanty Train with entertainment on board and activity packs for children, running backwards and forwards between Harwich Town and Manningtree stations.
We are pleased to announce that we have secured the use of Harwich Green again as an overnight site for self-contained vehicles. This is in a central position, close to all venues. Access is via Harbour Crescent. However, we regret to say that it is now fully booked. Tents cannot be accommodated. We have an Accommodation List that we can email to interested parties. To request this, see the online form on our website. Trinity House car park will be available again for use by festival visitors on Saturday and Sunday, 10th and 11th October. There will also be a Shanty Bus to transport people around town. There will be a late-night train running from Harwich Town to Colchester after midnight on the Friday and Saturday nights.
We are always looking for festival stewards. Join in with a great team of people and see the festival ‘from the inside’. In return for some help over the weekend, you will receive a Steward’s Wristband offering free access to most events. If you are interested, please email stewards@harwichshantyfestival.co.uk
Full details of all events and advance tickets are available via the website www.harwichshantyfestival.org Please note that the very popular tickets to all cruises are selling fast! Programmes, 2026 T-shirts, bandannas, mugs, shanty songbooks and other merchandise are also available from our website and can also be purchased during the festival from our pop up merchandise shop in the garden of The Alma.
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Article by Debbie Jones
Festival Press Officer
