FOLLOWING the success of the 2023 Teign Maritime & Shanty Festival, the committee of the event made £4,000 of donations to local charities to make a difference in the local community.

The 2023 festival was a three-day event, taking place over the weekend of September 8th, 9th and 10th. It celebrated maritime culture through around 50 sets of shanty singing groups from all over the UK, with the tall ship “Pelican” moored in Teignmouth Harbour all weekend. In addition there were around 15 Maritime themed family friendly presentations and exhibitions.

Sea shanties were essentially work songs, set to a rhythm for working, to reduce the monotony of undertaking repetitive tasks aboard ship. But they were also Foc’sle songs, which were storytelling verses to be listened to at leisure, to remind sailors of home and these helped to keep alive traditions and record local events and people.

The festival raised £4,000 for local causes, with four charities each receiving £1,000:

Ian Mitchell, Chair of the organising committee said 'The weekend could not happen without the wonderful array of stewards, sound technicians and other volunteers who kindly give up their time. Plus the fabulous performers – we capped the number of musical acts to 50 this year and that will continue to be the case for the future, as we want our 'free friendly festival' to continue to be a personal one. A huge thank you to the members of the public who attended, for the kind generosity of their donations.'