September 2025
The festival is biennial, so no festival in 2024. The 2025 dates depend upon the tides and the tide times & heights will not be published until sometime later this year.
Welcome to Devon's
Teign Maritime & Shanty Festival ®
Collecting donations over the festival weekend for the RNLI, Rowcroft Hospice, Teign Heritage Centre and the Alice Cross Centre.
Onward & Upward
The 2021 festival 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 £3,000 for charity via collections over the festival weekend. 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. 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.
2023 will be an even bigger and better festival, 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 are 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 sees 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 last festival.
Collections
Collections towards the festival will be made over the weekend and, after costs have been covered, all profits will be divided equally amongst our chosen charities. In 2021 we shared out £3000 between the charities, let’s see if we can, with your help, increase that this year.
Collections
Dedicated collections will be made for the charities listed above over the festival weekend. All charitable collections will be divided equally amongst our chosen charities. In 2019 we shared out £2000 between the charities, let’s see if we can, with your help, double it this year.
In 2021 there were in excess of 150 hours of free entertainment – this year there will be even more than 200! Brand new for 2023 will be the tall ship “Pelican” being moored in Teignmouth harbour for the whole weekend and people will be welcome to “come aboard”. There will also be specialist maritime themed presentations and demonstrations around the town, for people to learn more about the origin and construction of shanty work songs and associated crafts including: wooden ship’s figurehead carving, willow lobster pot weaving, rope making, rope knotting, Seine boat fishing, South Devon shores, sailing weather, lighthouse and Pilot Gig building talks, Shanty singing workshop, and also glass sea creatures and a Cannon on display! Plus new for 2023, Morris Dancing and a singing cyclist!
The maritime events will be ‘family friendly” ones held in very relaxed centrally located venues away from the hustle and bustle of the shanty singing in the pubs – though there will be plenty of that as well!
The festival is held over the weekend of September 8th, 9th and 10th. Full colour printed programmes will go on sale around the 3rd week of August.