Over the weekend shanty bands from all over the southwest, headed to Mevagissey in Cornwall, including the fab’lous Beach’d Buoys from Weston, accompanied by various shwags (shanty wags, i.e. wives and girlfriends)
The Beach’s Buoys trying to keep their faces straight, with Saucy Sally taking a bow
Here is an edited extract of the pre-fest blurb from the Proper Cornwall website https://propercornwall.co.uk/
Blow us men down! For such a relatively small but gorgeously idyllic village, Mevagissey doesn’t half pack in the singers and groups for this annual festival. The 2023 Mevagissey Shanty Festival in Cornwall is playing host to more than 60 singing groups and more than 450 performers across multiple venues in the village. Roll out the barrel… we’ll be there by sunset! The festival takes place between Friday 13 and Sunday 15 October 2023. The event, sponsored by Redruth‘s Keltek Brewery, should offer more than 140 hours of entertainment as the best shanty groups and singers descend on the village for another year of harmonious fun. In fact, expect an absolute bucketload of venues to stage the glorious shanty and folk acts just as they did at the 2022 edition. Venues included The Jubilee Hall and Mevagissey Museum, as well as pubs like The Ship Inn, The Fountain Inn, the Cellar Bar and the Harbour Tavern… Also a ‘Jetty Stage’ at the village’s seafront… and other nearby pubs like The Rising Sun Inn in Portmellon, The Llawnroc Hotel in Gorran Haven, The Crown Inn in St Ewe and the Into The Woods bar and restaurant in Pentewan…
The Beach’d Buoys performed in a variety of these venues to perform in, the final one being a wonderfully unusual pub in the small village of Pentewen. It’s called ‘Into the Woods’, which would pull me straight in even if I hadn’t got a shanty band to cheer on! We visited the pub last year, and I was fascinated by it, then, and equally fascinated again this year.
If you want to know more about Pentewen, visit here:
https://cornishstory.com/2020/05/06/pentewan/
The pub ‘Into the Woods’ is really unusual; we’ve always had a very friendly welcome and enjoyed being there. It’s decorated in such a wonderfully different way so I spent most of my time looking about me, wandering round, interested in what’s hanging on the walls and ceiling, the pictures, painted windows, implements and signs. The bar is like a small barn, with wooden roof beams, and it’s airy and bright. We were there during the day, I wonder what it’s like at night?! and it’s into
I was particularly taken by one sign: What if the Hokey Cokey really is what it’s all about?
Lois Elsden 