Huge crowds are set to fill venues across Old Leigh this weekend as the popular shanty festival returns.

Members of the Hoy at Anchor Folk Club and Leigh on Sea Lions Club are organising the free weekend of sea shanties, folk music, song and dance in the atmospheric setting of the Old Town.

There will be performances by shanty crews as well as pirate bands, celebrated folk artistes and dancers, at venues throughout Old Leigh thanks to bosses at The Crooked Billet, No 1 Cockleshed, The Peter Boat, Sara’s Tea Gardens, The Boatyard Restaurant, Billet Wharf, The Old Smack and The Mayflower.

A dedicated shanty stage will also be set up on Strand Wharf alongside a real ale bar.

No admission will be charged to the public and all the performers are giving their services free of charge on Friday (May 19) from 7pm and then Saturday and Sunday from 12pm.

Over the weekend, members of the Leigh Lions Club will be arranging a charity collection in aid of the Southend RNLI and Leigh Endeavour Trust.

Visit Southend's website says the following shanty crews and folk artistes have agreed to participate: 

  • The Hoy Shanty Crew
  • The Silver Darlings
  • The Hoolies
  • The Motley Crew
  • Impressed
  • The Hogeye Men
  • Mains’l Haul Shanty
  • The Brave Marauders
  • Freddie’s Barnet
  • The Felix Stowaways
  • Captain Morgan’s Rum Do
  • Cockleshell Clog
  • Arfur Do and the Toe Rags
  • Emerald Hill
  • Grand Reunion
  • Mucky Dennis and The Grifters 
  • Fran Foote and Belinda Kempster
  • Random Folk 
  • The Ondines 
  • PDQ. 
  • Goodnight Crow
  • Kiti Theobald
  • The Umbrella Factory
  • Hard to Handle
  • The Mudlarks and The Feelgood Choir

The weekend’s festivities start on Friday evening with a Folk Singaround run by Kiti Theobald at the Crooked Billet.