Hull Sea Fever Festival

The Hull Sea Fever Festival exists no longer, but has been superseded, as detailed below.

“These are mostly quiet pleasures, but for the visitor, the main event of the Hull year involves rather a lot of melodious noise. This is Sea Fever, the annual sea chantey festival, usually held in September (the 12th and 13th this year). A chantey is a sailor’s work song, rhythmic and mesmerizing, marking the time as an anchor is weighed, a sail is dropped, or a ship is warped into a dock. Musical groups come from as close by as the Netherlands and Brittany, from as far away as Australia, and the local favorite, Monkey’s Orphan, usually has a prominent role. Nautical crafts are displayed and sold, antique vessels are docked for inspection, a very great quantity of the best beer in the world is consumed, and the spectacle usually ends with an evening Survivors’ Session at a local watering hole.”

New York Times
By L. J. Davis
Sept. 6, 1998

This event was largely founded by Pete “Shanty Jack” Hayselden.  Based on comments on Facebook it was a popular event.  (Someone on Mudcat Café was attending the event in 2005.)

The status of Kingston upon Hull, (usually shortened to just “Hull”) as a major port over the centuries has meant that ideas and influences from different cultures and nationalities have been readily assimilated into the city, creating a rich diversity of folk traditions.

The city also played an important part in reviving and preserving the musical heritage of the British Isles during the post-war folk revival, with the establishment of the Folk Union One Club above Ye Old Blue Bell pub in 1963 by the Watersons, who would go on to forge one of the most influential family dynasties in British folk music.

Even though Folk Union One eventually ceased to exist, the torch for live folk music was carried on by other clubs during the 1970s and 1980s, and 1990 saw the establishment of the Hull Sea Shanty Festival, which ran, under various guises, until 2011, when it became a casualty of funding cuts. However, the first Hull Folk Festival took place in 2012, continuing the legacy with a real commitment to keeping the maritime aspect alive, and we are very proud of these roots.

In recent years, a new event, the Hull Folk and Maritime Festival has been created, reference to which may be found within the MMDI database.