On Friday 9 June 2023, 850 children from 14 schools across the island gathered together for the culmination of the Isle of Wight Solent Shanty Sing Project to perform together en masse and kick start a brand new walking festival celebrating the Heritage Coastline and Year of the Coast 2023! A mixture of children from Year 1 right up to Year 11 participated along with students from SEND settings.
Children arrived in staggered groups from 11am onwards and were treated to fantastic performances by local shanty groups the SHEshells and The Brighstone Barnacles while the sheer volume of pupils got into position. The New Carnival Company provided some beautiful flags and decoration for the space in the already stunning setting of Ventnor Botanic Gardens in full summer bloom.
The children sang a mixture of songs from a songbook commissioned by the music hub, composed a curated by Emily Peasgood and featured some original sea shanties collected on the Isle of Wight plus songs written with input from children taking part in the project. The event finished with a song written especially by Jo Downs about the Heritage Coastline on the island and everyone gave a loud countdown to start the first group of walkers taking part in the walking festival. The walking event was organised by Creative Ways Outdoors, New Carnival Company and the IOW Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty trust who provided certificates to all the young people who took part in the project to take home with them.
This huge scale partnership project continues over the next few weeks with further performances taking place in Weston Shore, West Quay and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard where 4 music hubs; Southampton, Isle of Wight, Hampshire and Portsmouth will all come together!
Photo credit Tracy Curtis and New Carnival Company
Nia Collins Event Organiser, says:
“What has been so fantastic about this project has been the level of collaboration and partnership that has brought this project together between cultural organisations (such as New Carnival Company and Creative Ways Outdoors) and local organisations (IOW AONB and Ventnor Botanic Gardens) right down to the children taking part writing their own parts of the songs we sang today. The Classic Boat Museum in Cowes even created a lesson plan resource especially for the project which has been shared with all the music hubs taking part in the wider regional project.
I have learned lots of things about the island’s unique geography and rich maritime history through this project and I’m certain that the young people participating have as well, all while we have been supporting schools and teachers to keep the magic of singing alive for children and young people!”
