List of maritime music festivals is a sortable incomplete list of regularly occurring festivals, throughout the world, which feature or which usually contain significant performances of maritime music, a style of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

largely based on the

sea shanty A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ...

. This list may have some overlap with

list of folk festivals A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

and list of early music festivals. Shanties had antecedents in the working chants of British and other national maritime traditions. They were notably influenced by songs of shanty repertoire borrowed from the contemporary popular music enjoyed by sailors, including minstrel music, popular

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...

, and land-based

folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

. The music has since appeared at early

folk festival A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

s, and by the late 1970s, the activities of enthusiasts and scholar-performers at places like the

Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic Seaport Museum (founded as Marine Historical Association) is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the largest in the United States. Its site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport vill ...

(who initiated an annual Sea Music Festival in 1979) and the San Francisco Maritime Museum established sea music—inclusive of shanties, sea songs, and other maritime music—as a genre with its own circuit of festivals, record labels, performance protocol, and so on. Some of the performances may be held at

maritime museums A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navy, navies and the m ...

, in conjunction with

boat shows A boat show is a public exhibition or trade fair of current boat models, debuts, concept marine vessel, vessels, or out-of-production classics. Due to the nature of the industry building around yachting and nautical tourism, a boat show may be a ...

or maritime festivals, or at other venues friendly to acoustic music. The performances at festivals can take several forms, as shanty performances today reflect a range of musical approaches and tastes. There are performers who favor a "traditional" style, who often perform

work song A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either one sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or one linked to a task that may be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. An example is " I ...

s ''a capella'' or only with light instrumentation typical of sailors (e.g.

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

). A great many of the performers of shanties do so in what might be distinguished as a "folk music" style, often accompanied by

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

. Still other performers come to shanties from backgrounds in pop, rock, or theatrical music, and perform in what may be called a "contemporary" style. Some shanties are performed in a "classical" choir style (like the

Robert Shaw Chorale The Robert Shaw Chorale was a renowned professional choir founded in New York City in 1948 by Robert Shaw, a Californian who had been drafted out of college a decade earlier by Fred Waring to conduct his glee club in radio broadcasts. History ...

).''Songs of the Sea'', Columbia (1956)

Related lists and categories

The following lists may have some overlap: *

List of music festivals A list of music festivals around the world. A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, ...

List of folk festivals A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

* List of early music festivals *

List of Celtic festivals Celtic festivals celebrate Celtic identity, Celtic culture, which in modern times may be via dance, Celtic music, food, Celtic art, or other mediums. Ancient Celtic festivals included religious and seasonal events such as bonfires, harvest festiv ...

The following categories are related: * :Music festivals * :Maritime music festivals * :Maritime music * :Folk festivals

Festivals by location

Festivals by date

The following table is a selection of the European event calendar remso.eu - Shanty- festivals with more than 4 performers (groups) only. All reported festival-events up from 3 groups you can find here
201520162017201820192020
Click on date below to watch participants of that event and listen to some of their songs.

Outdated

Gallery

Symphony Nova Scotia performs at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.jpg,

Symphony Nova Scotia Symphony Nova Scotia is a Canadian orchestra based in Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Its primary recital venue is at the Dalhousie Arts Centre's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. History Symphony Nova Scotia began in 1983 ...

performs at the

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The museum is a member institution of the Nova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection o ...

File:Portsoy, Slogmaakane at the Portsoy Boat Festival - geograph.org.uk - 854153.jpg, Portsoy Boat Festival File:Boulogne 2013 4944.JPG, Fête de la mer à Boulogne-sur-Mer, 2013 File:PLcdm 2009 V 097.JPG, Festival du chant de marin 2009 PLcdm 2009 S 059.JPG, Festival du chant de marin 2009 PLcdm 2009 V 111.JPG, Festival du chant de marin 2009 PLcdm 2009 S 006.JPG, Festival du chant de marin 2009 File:PLcdm 2009 S 029.JPG, Festival du chant de marin. Paimpol 2009 File:PLcdm 2009 S 004.JPG, Festival du chant de marin. Paimpol 2009 PLcdm 2009 Nouvelle France 1.JPG, Festival du chant de marin 2009 Taillevent sur la Fée de l'Aune Paimpol 2013.jpg, Fée de l'Aune Paimpol 2013 File:Boulogne 2013 4942.JPG, Fête de la mer (Boulogne, 2013)

References

External links

Maritime Music Directory International
Since 2021 the MMDI has been a comprehensive index of maritime-themed musical acts, venues and events, band members and recordings.
Hart Backbord
contains a comprehensive list of forthcoming festivals across the world.
The Bitter End
contained a comprehensive list of forthcoming festivals across the world. The website owner, Alan Hardy, stopped updating this site in 2009.
shantyfreun.de
list of European shanty-choirs and groups.
The Event Calendar remso.eu
contains a user-edited list of forthcoming maritime music events in Europe, some with audio and video included. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maritime Music Festivals Lists of classical music festivals * Lists of folk festivals