Overview
The 2023 Teign Maritime & Shanty Festival, held between the 8th and 10th September was an even bigger and better event than previously, with around 50 sets of shanty singing groups attending from all over the UK, and the tall ship “Pelican” moored in Teignmouth Harbour all weekend. In addition there were around 15 Maritime themed family friendly presentations & exhibitions.
As well as all the totally free to attend events over the Saturday and Sunday, Friday evening saw the new feature of a paid concert at the Teignmouth Pavillions, featuring headliners “Kimber’s Men”, ably supported by the wonderful singing duo that are “LocTup Together” and the ever popular “Captain’s Beard” who wowed audiences at the previous festival.
Note: There was no festival in 2025. Future festivals are also in doubt.
The origin of the festival – Teign Shanty Festival is a new festival taking place in Teignmouth and Shaldon in Devon, on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2018. It will be held at various venues in the town, in conjunction with local food festival Taste of the Teign.
The 2019 festival, organised byTeignmouth’s Back Beach Boyz was a huge success, filling the towns of Teignmouth and Shaldon with crowds of supporters, raising the profile of Shanties and the River Teign community, as well as raising £2,000 for charity via collections over the festival weekend. In the Teign estuary area we are blessed to have talented songwriters such as Bob Freshwater, who painstakingly research historical records and craft their own recording of such events and so keep them alive for future generations.
Sadly, due to the Covid situation, the 2020 festival had to be cancelled, but 2021 was an even bigger and better festival, with at least 44 sets of shanty singing groups attending – up from 27 in 2019, coming from all over the UK. There were over 20 Maritime themed family friendly presentations & exhibitions.