Harwich International Sea Shanty Festival 2014
We’ve been meaning to get to the Harwich International Sea Shanty Festival for some years, and finally got round to it this afternoon. The festival takes place over three days across Old Harwich, (notably in pubs!), with artists from all over the world performing, workshops, and other activities.
We chose to book on a 1.5 hour sailing trip on the Sailing Barge Victor, over a hundred years old and restored in 2006. En route to the Ha’Penny Pier we stopped off to listen to Quidnunc, who looked and sounded something like this :
We climbed on board the Victor and headed up to the front (the bow!), and were handily placed when the Kernow Buoys popped up there to begin their singing as the Victor sailed up the Stour, past the International Port, and rounded an enormous marine crane used for assembling wind turbines.
Sadly the wind across our bows preventing us capturing any decent video of the Kernouw boys who sung for most of the trip, with a wide range of songs, mostly traditional but with a couple of more modern, and a couple of slightly salty numbers. A break in the singing allowed refreshments, tea and hot sausage rolls being the order of the day, it being fairly chilly.
A great afternoon out – look out for the trips the SB Victor offers during the year, and keep an eye open for next year’s festival and other events in Old Harwich.
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