The annual Sea Shanty Festival returns to Cutty Sark on Saturday 21 November – a day of rousing performances of folk songs for all ages.
The first edition of the festival was held in 2021 and, since then, it has grown to include bands and artists from across the UK and beyond.
Performers will take to the stage to fill the decks of the ship and its dry berth with traditional maritime working songs. Among them are Cutty Sark’s resident shanty groups Swinging the Lead and The HogEye Men, as well as all-female shanty crews like The Silver Darlings and Upping the Shanty. Other musicians include Sonny Brazil, a folk singer and squeeze box player, Mark Braby, a multi-instrumentalist delivering a talk on sea shanties, the Queer History Club Choir and the London Sea Shanty Collective.
The festival is divided into two sessions: a morning and an afternoon one, with ticket holders having access to both sessions. Performances will start at 10:30am, culminating in a first big sing along at 1:30pm. The second session, which will start at 2:30pm and feature the same performers, will end in a final sing along at 5:30pm.
Alongside shanty singing, a number of workshops and family-friendly activities such as ropemaking will take place around the space.
Vicki Beswick, Schools Learning Senior Producer at Royal Museums Greenwich, led the organisation of the event. She said: “What makes the Sea Shanty Festival really special is that it takes place on and under one of the UK’s most famous ships – Cutty Sark. 157 years ago, its sailors would have been singing these same shanties whilst working to help the ship speed across the ocean. Every year, on Cutty Sark’s birthday, we pay homage to those crews with our annual musical celebration.”
For more information visit: https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/cutty-sark/sea-shanty-festival-2026
