OVER 300 performers will be setting compass points for Teignmouth next weekend when the Teign Maritime and Shanty Festival get under way.

The free festival is being held over the weekend of September 4 and 5 in various venues across the towns of Teignmouth and Shaldon. This year the singing will be mostly outside, with capacity restrictions for all inside venues.

Featured as one of the six best places to hear sea shanties in Devon and Cornwall, the festival will host 44 sets of musical performers and around 20 maritime events and it is set to be the largest of its kind in the country this year.

As part of the maritime theme a two-masted topsail schooner, the Johanna Lucretia will arrive on Friday afternoon be moored in Teignmouth harbour over the weekend.

On the ship will be 12 lucky people who have purchased berths and will help sail her to from Plymouth to Teignmouth in the preceding week, plus another 12 lucky people to make the return journey after the festival. Festival visitors will be able to board the ship to look around.

Shanties have now gone mainstream, with shanty crews singing at the recent G7 conference and the huge hit by the Scottish postman Nathan Evans, singing “The Wellerman”.

‘Sea shanties are songs, set to a rhythm for working that helped to reduce the monotony of undertaking repetitive tasks aboard ship,’ explained the festival’s chair Kevin Booker.

‘Shanties were also Foc’sle songs, which were storytelling verses to be listened to at leisure, to remind sailors of home and over the years have kept alive traditions and recorded local events and people.

‘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, keeping such tales alive for future generations.’

Featuring in the impressive vocal line-up will be Teignmouth’s own Back Beach Boyz along with Cask, plus the likes of renowned singer and writer of nautical songs Tom Lewis, Cornish shanty group Stuns’ls and Liverpool duo LocTup Together, to name but a few of those attending from all over the country.

‘We are proud that this festival is the only one of its kind in Devon and gaining UK recognition for its family friendly maritime features,’ continued Kevin.

‘In addition to the singing there will be talks and exhibitions on such things as whaling, shipwrecks, scrimshaw, rope making, knotting, story telling, seaweed harvesting and wooden ship figurehead carving, plus heritage crafts such as crab and lobster pot making and cockle fishing sieves.

‘The talk by local character Barry Sessions of the Teign Shellfish Company is sure to be a well-attended highlight.’

These maritime events will be held in relaxed spacious centrally located venues away from the hustle and bustle, and, weather permitting, the River Teign Rowing Club will also be providing ‘taster’ pilot gig rowing sessions at appropriate tide times.

‘Obviously we have to say a massive thank you to all our supporters and volunteers who have stuck with us over the past 18 months,’ Kevin added.

‘Without the level of support that they give the festival just couldn’t happen.’

Full details of the festival are available on the website www.teignshantyfestival.co.uk.