Sea shanties are fashionable? We’re so ahead of the curve...

Me at the 2018 Harwich
Shanty Festival

I admit that the sudden outbreak of sea shanties on something called TikTok has been fascinating. Not new, but fascinating nonetheless. It’s not new because, for those of us who have discovered the Harwich Shanty Festival, the idea of shanties as entertainment has been there for a while.

Admittedly, Ros and I came about the Shanty Festival by chance to some extent. As Ros was Deputy Chair of the Harwich Haven Authority, we visited Harwich fairly regularly, Ros for work, me for the occasional very nice dinner or New Years’s Eve night out at the Pier Hotel. We spotted the festival and thought that it might be a fun day out for her family.

And, as it turned out, we were right. The Festival is not just an excuse to sell more beer, although it might be fair to note that there is a very significant ale drinking, bearded element amongst the performers and audiences, but it’s a serious international event. And yes, quite a lot of the performances take place in pubs because, well, beer is readily available. For, let’s face it, if you don’t know much about shanty singing, beer helps to relax you into the mood.

I have a Festival t-shirt, which I wear in the gym occasionally (or at least, pre-pandemic, did), and I enjoy a shanty as much as the next pirate. And so I welcome the sudden exposure that shanties have received, all due to a postman from Scotland - he’s very good, by the way.

The Festival is an annual event, and it’s more than just some concerts. Our local Train Operating Company, Greater Anglia, run a shanty train on one day of the festival between Manningtree and Harwich Town, there are demonstrations at the Redoubt Fort and there’s beer. Oh yes, I think that I’d already mentioned that...