Chorus of approval for Teign Maritime & Shanty Festival helpers

A special thankyou has been paid to volunteers behind of a South Devon music festival, which has raised thousands of pounds for charity including Rowcroft Hospice.

The committee of the Teign Maritime and Shanty Festival staged a free thank you event at Teignmouth Rugby Club for all the 'wonderful festival volunteers and sound technicians' with entertainment provided by the Back Beach Boyz and Celtic Dawn, both locally grown groups.

A committtee spokesman said: "Without our lovely volunteers, the event simply could not take place. The same goes for the wonderful companies that take out adverts in the programme and the pubs and breweries who provide support in all sorts of ways."

Since its inception four festivals have been staged and £10,000 raised for the festival's charities - the Alice Cross Centre, RNLI, Rowcroft and Teign Heritage Centre Museum

The 2023 event was the largest festival yet, with 50 sets of musical perfromers and 15 maritime presenters - 300 people in total - from all over Torbay and South Devon who gave their time unstintingly and we were honoured to have the world famous “Kimber’s Men” perform.

Another highlight was the presence all weekend of the tall ship Pelican, moored in Teignmouth Harbour for people to board and look around. Last year also saw the use of The Den on the Saturday, heralded by a Scottish Piper leading many of the performers around the town, culminating in a gathering in the Triangle. The festival was kindly opened by Teignmouth’s Mayor, Cllr Joan Atkins outside the Teignmouth Pavillions, which was home to performances right through from Friday until Sunday.

The spokesman said: "The committee, as local residents themselves, are delighted to have brought so much enjoyment and footfall to the town over the years. We have taken the decision to run the festival every other year as it takes a year to prepare everything and, to minimise costs, all the work is undertaken by the committee, right down to designing advertising materials and typesetting the huge programme.

"The team have loved organising the festival and have gladly up their time, but now feel the need to step down to pursue other activities. Therefore we are hoping that others will come forward to take up the baton.

“Teign Maritime & Shanty Festival is a registered trademark and we are very protective of the brand. Feedback from performers and the public alike is how well organised and friendly the festival is and we need to find a new team to uphold these high standards."

The next festival is scheduled to be in September 2025 (the exact date is tide dependant) and, given that it takes a year to prepare, the committee needs to get a team in place as quickly as possible. The current main committee are happy to provide training, insight and oversight, but not to be part of the new committee. However, certain members of the wider committee with responsibility for certain special organisational aspects have indicated they be happy to continue in a support role.

Anybody interested should email info@teignshantyfestival.co.uk"