Festival Of The Sea returning to Grimsby this summer

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The Festival Of The Sea is set to return to Grimsby this summer with a “programme co-curated by local people who know and love this town”.

For the past three years, the family-friendly event has attracted thousands of people to the town centre to take part in activities, discussions, and see performances about Grimsby’s historic, sea-faring past.

The Festival Of The Sea, which is set to take place on Saturday, June 22 between 11am and 5pm, will not only celebrate the town’s special relationship with the sea throughout history, but also look towards the future.

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Swans Events has worked alongside a steering group of local people who are passionate about Grimsby’s history and community spirit to help with programming for the festival.

“Festival Of The Sea is a celebration of all that makes Grimsby unique,” said festival organiser Noemi Antonelli from Swans Events. “We’re thrilled to have a programme co-curated by local people who know and love this town.”

The festival aims to engage, entertain, and inspire residents and visitors, and bring together the community for a day of fun, entertainment, and interactive learning.

Cllr Hayden Dawkins, portfolio holder for culture, heritage and the visitor economy at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “I am absolutely delighted that this festival will once again provide a true showcase for Grimsby and North East Lincolnshire. It will be packed with family entertainment, and is a perfect way to show how our past, great heritage can be brought into the modern day using the creativity and talent that now exists.”

The council says there has been an “overwhelming response” to the 2024 event, with a packed programme of activities, performances, guided walks, installations, and projects being lined up.

Among the highlights this year will be the creation of a new contemporary dance performance inspired by local people’s stories to turn our community connections to the water into ‘MOVEMENT’. This new creation will be facilitated with several workshops prior to the festival, led by Grimsby arts and heritage organisation Our Big Picture.

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Turntable Gallery will also join the festival with their Message In A Bottle installation featuring tales from rescue pleas to a sailor looking for love. People will also be urged to get involved and help gather bottles to write their own tales and “explore the magic discovering the journeys of messages delivered by the sea”.

More details on how to take part and the rest of the programme will be announced soon.

The project has received £25,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025 with the aim of improving pride in place and increasing life chances across the UK by investing in communities and places, supporting local businesses, along with people and skills.

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There were also 553 reports of “hunt havoc”, in which hounds caused disruption such as chasing other wild animals or pets, worrying livestock or causing traffic incidents, or disturbing the public, the organisation said. Emma Judd, head of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “It’s 20 years since the Hunting Act was passed but, since then, figures we compile consistently suggest hunts still chase and kill foxes as they did before the ban. “Hunts may claim they are following a pre-laid animal scent trail, known as trail hunting, but this has been shown to be nothing but a smokescreen to conceal old-fashioned illegal hunting.” She said trail hunting and loopholes in the Hunting Act made it “all but impossible” to enforce the law, and called for the Government to strengthen the legislation and introduce custodial sentences for those hunting wild animals with dogs, and to set out a timetable for doing so. 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While he said moves to require hunts to lay non animal-based scents and bring in a “recklessness” element to the offence would be survivable for most hunts, he warned Labour against “opening Pandora’s box” by revisiting the legislation, as he said it could become a toxic political battle. In the wake of widespread anger with Labour in rural communities over issues such as changes to inheritance tax for farm businesses and an acceleration of the phaseout of farming subsidies in favour of environmental payments, Mr Bonner also said it would be extraordinary to push a ban. “Given where the government is in its relationship with the countryside already, frankly it would seem extraordinary that they’d want to double down on an issue which really doesn’t matter.” While there are hundreds of jobs supported by hunting, it is a relatively niche activity, he said, but added it plays a key role in parts of rural Britain where farming is tough and mental health and loneliness are big issues. “It’s one of those elements that brings the rural community together and to remove that through an act of spite, if that was to happen, would be something which I think people would react extremely badly to,” he said. Joe Emmett, master and huntsman of the South Devon Hunt, said: “The hunt plays an important role in our local community and meets like Boxing Day are the perfect opportunity for locals and visitors to the area to come together.” The League Against Cruel Sports said polling earlier this year showed more than three quarters (76%) of the British public supported strengthening the Hunting Act, but the Countryside Alliance pointed to a survey over the weekend of more than 2,000 people in which just 5% put it in their top three issues for voting in the next election. Published: 26/12/2024 by Radio NewsHub

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Festival Of The Sea returning to Grimsby this summer

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Governments pledge to ban trail hunting in spotlight as Boxing Day hunts meet

Train reliability hits the buffers as annual cancellations exceed 360000

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