A busy year ahead

In our first ever blog post, we'll take a look at what's been happening so far in 2026, and what's coming up soon.

We've been hosting a monthly open mic session at the Ebbw Vale Rugby Club since August last year. We usually start off with a couple of shanties ourselves. The floor is then opened to a wide range of local artists and bands, of all abilities and styles - often including a mix of folk, country, blues, pop and some songs of the sea. Regrettably, the session in January had to be cancelled because of the bad weather and snow, but we resumed the series on Fri 6 Feb with double the energy! Have a look at some of the video recordings here, or even better join us for the next one - on stage, or in the audience. Contact Owen Jones for more information.

On 4 February we joined Bois y Bryn for a charity fundraising gig in Newport, hosted by the city's Lord Mayor. Together we raised over two thousands pounds for two great charities: Little People UK and Book Trust Cymru.

Looking ahead, we will perform at several shanty festivals this year, including the Cockwood shanty festival in South Devon (21-22 Mar), the Pirates in the Port festival Newport (29-31 May), and Weston-super-Mare shanty festival (31Jul-2 Aug) with others hopefully to be confirmed shortly. We also have a few shorter gigs coming up - more info soon.

Last but not least we're really looking forward to our trip to Tarragona in Spain next August, where we will be combining shanty singing with watching the total solar eclipse- fingers crossed for clear skies!