Falmouth International Shanty Festival 09 - Report

Well, we all made it to Falmouth despite dire prognostications from the weather man about sailing conditions, with three boats berthed at Port Pendennis this year. Once again we were berthed with our friends from the Wareham Whalers.

The weather turned out to sunny and hot, which was a real bonus for everybody. The first thing we did was join a mass shanty sing for BBC Spotlight. We started our performances by doing the early session at the Watersports Centre on Friday evening and on Saturday we did 5 Degrees West, The Moor Piazza stage and the Front. On Sunday we only had the one event which was on the Custom House Quay at lunchtime.

There were a record number of groups this year from France, Holland and Denmark, as well as a lot of excellent UK groups.

We had a few funny incidents. One of the best was when Will was introducing ‘Tall Ships’ at the Waterfront. He was doing his bit about how the Cornish used to indulge in a little ‘diversification’ in the form of wrecking when a strong Cornish voice announced from somewhere ‘and we ain’t finished yet’. Despite everyone collapsing at this (including the Tars!), William managed to keep his intro going.

There was a great atmosphere throughout and Falmouth Shout did a superb job in organising and managing the weekend once again with their usual hospitality. Many thanks to them for all their efforts, which hopefully raised a considerable sum for the RNLI.

There are some pictures of the event and links to some You Tube videos to the right of this post.

We hope to be back there next year.