Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival Celebrates 21st Year This Month

Published On: 5 June 2025Last Updated: 5 June 2025By CornishStuff

Cornwall prepares for the world’s biggest free nautical music celebration

The award-winning Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival is gearing up for its 21st edition, taking place from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th June 2025. More than 85 local, national and international groups will perform across around 30 venues, bringing sea shanties and songs of the sea to life throughout the harbour town.

The festival has grown from a pub idea into what is now Europe’s largest free nautical music and song festival, attracting over 50,000 visitors per day. Audiences pack into pubs, hotels, cafes and community spaces around Falmouth, all joining in to celebrate Cornwall’s deep maritime roots through music.

A Bold Claim: The Most Accessible Music in the World?

Organisers, music researchers and cultural academics say sea shanties could be the most accessible, inclusive and ageless form of performance music ever.

Nicholas Booker, a Ph.D. candidate in musicology and ethnomusicology at The Ohio State University and a graduate research associate for the Center for Folklore Studies, conducted research at the festival last year.

“The Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival demonstrates that there are young audiences around the world who are finding new and vibrant ways to become a part of this musical history that stretches back to the ‘golden age of sail’ two hundred years ago,” said Nicholas.

“The success of, and the evident enthusiasm for, the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival demonstrates that shanties and songs of the sea are very much a living tradition.”

He added that Falmouth is the “perfect musical crossroads,” highlighting its multi-cultural maritime heritage and vibrant student population.

A Living Tradition With Deep Roots

Dr Garry Tregidga, co-director of the Institute of Cornish Studies and part of the Cornish National Music Archive, said sea shanties are becoming a stronger part of Cornwall’s musical identity.

“Sea shanties were originally songs of sea labour, devised by sailors to accompany certain arduous tasks onboard merchant sailing vessels. They were created to get people grafting together in unison on ships, and to be motivating and uplifting as they did so.”

He added that the songs don’t require perfect voices and compared a great shanty to the type of song you’d hear sung loudly and proudly on football terraces.

From Pub Idea to Global Influence

The festival was first dreamed up in 2004 by a group called Falmouth Shout, in the back room of the Seven Stars pub, with support from RNLI Falmouth. One founding member, Gordon Kelly, recalled:

“It was just an idea in the pub one night and we just thought why not – we’ll give it a go, together with the RNLI Falmouth station, to bring groups together, have fun and raise some funds.”

Many of those original singers are still involved today.

An Expanding Audience

Each year, organisers are seeing more female-only groups, schoolchildren being taught songs of the sea, a growing presence of Gen Z performers, and even a popular LGBTQIA+ group joining the ranks.

Festival Chair Richard Gates said:

“It is incredible to see the variation of groups that come through year-on-year which is testament to the growing popularity of this tradition… the atmosphere is incredible, and feeling of community is always brilliant no matter what time of day or night it is.”

“It’s great to see, and experience, not just the popularity, but the physical and sensory enjoyment of the good old sea shanty. And great to witness how our festival is driving this historical form of performance and song ever-forward in new, and exciting, contemporary ways.”