July Newsletter

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There's only 3 months before the Harwich International Sea Shanty Festival - the countdown begins!

Fliers have mostly been distributed and Posters are now going up around the town. Thanks to everyone who has offered to help with distribution. If you think you can help with spreading the word a little further please do get in touch and we will send you some fliers. As reported last month, 2018 badges have now been produced, a few sold already and some mailed out to our “Friends of the Festival”. T-Shirt design is also finalised and we hope to have these printed very soon. Badges can be purchased in advance of the Festival via our website. See 2018 Festival – 2018 Merchandise.

Harwich Shanty Crew sang at Café on the Pier on 17th June, helping to raise the profile of the Festival and on Thursday July 5th from 2.00 p.m. our Belgian guests Les Corsaires de la Vesdres will also sing at the Pier on their way from Belgium to another booking. Still space left to sing in August or September if any crews are interested. It’s a pleasant and popular summer spot and helps publicise both visiting crews and our Festival. Oh and Café on the Pier are excellent hosts. Do get in touch if you are interested.

We are very pleased to announce that we will again be using Trinity House Car Park over the weekend of the Festival. This helped enormously with pressure on car parking spaces last year and we are grateful to Trinity House for their continued support. The Car Park is accessed from West Street from 10.00 until 1800 on Saturday and Sunday (no overnight parking) and we will have a car park attendant at the gate.

We’re also pleased to announce that we have received financial support from Harwich Haven Authority again this year and a grant from Harwich Town Council. Without this local support we would be unable to continue to run the Festival and we are grateful for their support.

We also received a grant from the Jerome Booth Charitable Fund, administered by Essex Community Foundation, which will enable us to run a series of Bones Workshops for local schoolchildren. Hans Weehuizen aka Dutch Uncle ran these for the first time in 2017 and they proved so popular that we are again offering local schools the chance to take part on the Friday of the Festival. Hans will of course be running his now famous Bones Workshops for adults over the Festival weekend and there are a range of other workshops on offer, but we are always on the lookout for more. If you can offer a workshop with a maritime related theme please get in touch.

As mentioned on Facebook earlier this month, we will be spending a short time at the Festival commemorating the end of the 1st World war 100 years ago. Jim Radford, a regular at our festival and one of the few surviving veterans of the 2nd World War, will be helping us commemorate this in words and song. But if any of you are about in London on Saturday 4th August, Jim has the honour of being asked to perform one of his own songs "The Merchant Seaman" at Westminster Abbey as part of the combined armed forces tribute to the end of the Great War.

Keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter and our own website for any more up to date news of the Festival and don’t forget to keep us posted if you have any news of your own.

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