First ever Morecambe Maritime Festival - everything you need to know

The first ever Morecambe Maritime Festival is set to celebrate the town's bay and fishing heritage with music, tours, talks, family fun and much more.

The event on Saturday August 24, taking place in various venues around the seafront area, coincides with the 200th anniversary of the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)

The festival will celebrate Morecambe’s proud maritime culture and heritage with performances of sea songs and shanties, and a variety of outdoor activities on Morecambe’s Promenade. 

Venues include The Pier, the inshore lifeboat station, The Royal Bar & Shaker, the King's Arms, The Bath, the Clock Tower Cafe, Eric Morecambe Statue and the Winter Gardens.

There will also be a Sing Around Session, an open session to sing your favourite shanties or songs of the sea, walking tours, exhibitions, talks, stalls and more.

Acts include:

Gerry French and Harry Lowery - top folk duo

Lawrence Hoy and Steve Higgins - playing traditional and contemporary songs of the sea

Linn Phipps - traditional singer who performs sea songs and shanties in English and Gaelic

LuneTide - a duo from Sunderland Point

The Mizzen Crew - Morecambe's own shanty group, pictured below

Nobody's Friends - Cumbria shanty group

Scold's Bridle - singing songs written about the wives and families of deep sea fisherman

Peter and Barbara Snape - telling folk singer Anne Gilchrist’s story through entertaining stories, slides music and song

Sunderland Point Crew - sea shanty group from Sunderland Point

Tom Perry and Clive Brooks - a capella folk music duo

Wise Up Workshops CIC Summer School - performing 'Sounds of the Sea' inspired by Morecambe Bay, a piece devised by young people aged 5-18 years.

Shrimpy Shack - a live museum theatre piece with stories based on Morecambe Bay through the ages

Here is the full festival line-up.

Festival badges are on sale from £1, raising funds for the Morecambe Maritime Festival which is supporting Morecambe lifeboat service.

They are available at

- Morecambe Lifeboat shops, the Pier Hotel, the Kings Arms, The Royal Bar and Shaker, The Bath Morecambe, Ralphy’s Café Morecambe, Embargo Craft Bar, The Stone Jetty Café or you can donate online and find out more about the festival HERE