Essential Information
| Type | Events and festivals |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Date and Times | Saturday 22 November 2025 | 10am - 4.30pm |
| Prices | Free with entry to ship |
Cutty Sark's Sea Shanty Festival is back! Come and enjoy traditional maritime music in celebration of the tea clipper's 156th birthday.
The event will feature the vocal talents of bands and artists from across the UK and beyond. Get ready for a day of fun and festivity.
Programme schedule
Scroll down to learn more about the performers.
| Time | 'Tween Deck | Dry Dock |
| 10.15am | The HogEye Men | |
| 10.30am | Learn a shanty with John | |
| 10.45am | ||
| 11am | Sonny Brazil and the Queer History Club Choir | Luigi Coppola - poet |
| 11.15am | The John Roan School choir | |
| 11.30am | ||
| 11.45am | Sea Shanty history talk with Mark | |
| 12pm | Learn a shanty with John | Sonny Brazil and the Queer History Club choir |
| 12.15pm | ||
| 12.30pm | The HogEye Men | |
| 12.45pm | The Silver Darlings | |
| 1pm | ||
| 1.15pm | Sonny Brazil | |
| 1.30pm | ||
| 1.45pm | ||
| 2pm | Luigi Coppola - poet | Carmen Souza and band |
| 2.15pm | Sea Shanty history talk with Mark | |
| 2.30pm | ||
| 2.45pm | The Silver Darlings | |
| 3pm | London Sea Shanty Collective | |
| 3.15pm | ||
| 3.30pm | Sea Shanty history talk with Mark | |
| 3.45pm | ||
| 4pm | Big sing along with all performers | |
| 4.15pm | ||
| 4.30pm |
Meet the performers
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The HogEye Men
The HogEye Men have almost 20 years of experience as a group singing shanties and maritime songs to audiences around the country, including a monthly residency on Cutty Sark since 2019. They are respected as London's primary exponents of these unaccompanied working songs from a past age.
The group blends strong voices and subtle harmonies to give audiences a taste of the true nature of the traditional shanty form, while also offering them a selection of more up-to-date tales of the sea.
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London Sea Shanty Collective
After a busy year of gigs and festivals in the UK and abroad, the London Sea Shanty Collective are delighted to be returning to one of the most enjoyable locations to perform at, the Cutty Sark.
They are a non-auditioning community choir of women and men of all ages and backgrounds from around the world, committed to social justice, equality and the joy of singing.
Be it in national institutions, private functions, clubs, pubs, churches, on street corners or under sail, they love keeping shanties and songs of the sea alive. They arrange and sometimes update traditional songs, while expanding the repertoire with their own compositions. It's a love they look forward to sharing!
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Carmen Souza
Don’t miss Carmen Souza’s electrifying performance as she unveils her 11th album, Port’Inglês (English port).
Through her unique style, Souza shares the untold stories of the British occupation of Cape Verde, seamlessly blending jazz and Cabo Verdean influences.
Renowned as the Cape Verdean Ella Fitzgerald, Souza’s charisma and virtuoso vocal technique transcend traditional music genres, captivating audiences with her vibrant performances.
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Mark Braby
Mark is a musician playing guitar, bass and drums. Mark drums in ’60s b-movie garage band The Voo-dooms and has his own Major Braby music project going on. Mark also works at Royal Museums Greenwich and has a particular interest in sea shanties.
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The Queer History Club Choir
The Queer History Club is an informal network that meets at the National Maritime Museum to support research and explorations into the RMG collection with a queer eye, whether academically or creatively. Obviously, it needed its own choir approaching sea shanties in a similar manner – with a queer ear. The group has been experimenting with adding new lyrics to old shanties they love to give them a queer bent.
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Sonny Brazil
Sonny Brazil is a folk singer and squeeze box player from the southeast of England. Raised in South East London and Brighton, Sonny dwells among the bargee traveller community, living and playing music as they have for centuries on the inland waterways of England.
Sonny lives entrenched in the world of English folk culture, working as a crew member on the Thames Sailing Barges and living on the canals. They are one of the founding members of the folk collective Goblin Band, described by Martin Carthy as "The band we've been waiting for".
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Luigi Coppola
Luigi Coppola is one of Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective 23/24, a Poetry Archive Worldview winner, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and longlisted for the Ledbury & National Poetry Competition. Luigi produces music as ‘The Only Emperor’ and has a debut collection from Broken Sleep Books.
What’s On
See more events at Cutty Sark.
