Maritime-Festival

The 14th Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival returns to South Quay on Saturday 7 September (10am to 6pm) and Sunday 8 September (10am to 5pm) to celebrate the town’s proud maritime past and our maritime future with visiting ships, live music, street entertainment, arts, crafts and children’s activities, www.maritime-festival.co.uk. The festival is organised by Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority.

Festival activities and entertainment on South Quay are free; a donation of £1 per visitor towards Festival costs is welcomed.

morgenster

Dutch square-rigged tall ship the Morgenster, which will also be offering sailing trips and steam tug Challenge, the last steam tug to work on the Thames will be in port. The Challenge, part of the National Historic Fleet, is best known for the role she played in Operation Dynamo, evacuating troops from Dunkirk in 1940. MTB102, the third last vessel to leave Dunkirk will also be alongside, as well as steam drifter Lydia Eva, RASC Fast Launch Humber, RNLI Great Yarmouth & Gorleston’s Samarbeta liefboat, HMCC Vigilant (customs cutter), MV Confidante (Gardline coastal survey vessel).

Shanty and maritime music will be performed throughout the weekend at three different venues on South Quay. New visiting shanty groups are Nine Tenths Below from the North-West and Baggyrinkle from Swansea. Other performers at the festival are Sheringham Shantymen, Capstan Full Strength, Crossjack from Germany, The Jolly Rogers from Centre 81, Benny Graham and Chuck Fleming, the Mollyhawks and DPA Performing Arts Academy Gorleston.

BBC Radio Norfolk will be broadcasting their gardening programme “The Garden Party”, hosted by Thordis Fridriksson, on the main stage from 12 noon to 2pm on Saturday 7 September; the panel will look at growing plants by the sea.

steam_tug_challenge

Visitors will be able to meet Admiral Nelson, Mrs Hamilton, Lofty the Lighthouse and Horatio Herring; enjoy military re-enactments from East Norfolk Militia, street theatre from Inner State, punch and judy shows with Professor Pulson and face painting and balloon modelling.

Head to the BBC Summer of Wildlife stage to discover creatures filmed off the coast of Norfolk and find out what an underwater camera can see. Find out about the Broads and local nature reserves and make a dragonfly, a butterfly feeder or a flying wristband with the RSPB, or have a go at making herring kites and shark’s tooth necklaces with Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

Eastern Inshore Fisheries will have a tank full of local marine species to explore and Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre will also give visitors the chance to get close to sea creatures.

Watch a maritime masterpiece being painted before your eyes, see lace making and spinning and have a go at making a fisherman’s net. There’s also face painting with a nautical theme.

Morgenster Sailings: there are five passenger sailing trips between Thursday 5 September and Sunday 8 September. Sailing duration will depend on the tide, but will last from 2½ to 3½ hours. Thursday 5 September at 9am and 2pm – £32 per person; Friday 6 September at 6.30pm – £35 per person; Saturday 7 September at 6pm –  £39 per person; Sunday 8 September at 6pm – £39 per person.  Tickets are on sale at Great Yarmouth Tourist Information Centre t 01493 332200 or online at www.maritime-festival.co.uk.

great-yarmouth-maritime-festival-mascots

Aileen Mobbs, Festival Chairman and GYTA Honorary President said: “This will be our fourteenth Maritime Festival. We are enormously grateful to our festival sponsors who enable us to put on such a fantastic event every year. Our visitors are always delighted by the nautical nature of our festival, as we celebrate the town’s maritime past, present and future.”

The Maritime Festival sponsors are Seajacks UK Ltd, E.On Climate & Renewables, Eastport UK, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, ELM Contracts, Bunn’s Fertiliser, Gardline, BDO LLP, Petrofac, Bateman Groundworks & Wellington Construction. With thanks also to MDF Transport, Regional Scaffolding and Eastern Power.