An organization goes through a great deal of time, labor and expense to put together a festival dedicated to tall ships and all things maritime. This is an immense treat for tens of thousands of individuals and families who otherwise have little, if any, exposure to the thrill of the golden age of sail. The ships that participate in the Tall Ships Challenge® are built to meticulously recreate the vessels that were the life-blood of commerce and exploration in days gone by. The designs of the ships, the sail plans, the miles of lines, the training of the crews that work the ships are all together creating a wonderful atmosphere that thrills the paying audience.
One little known fact is that music was a critical part of a sailor’s daily life. He sang while he worked to keep time with his shipmates as they performed laborious tasks to keep the vessel “ship-shape.” He sang below deck to wile the time away and remember his sweetheart or his wife. He sang in the taverns when the voyage was done to celebrate his pay and good fortune.
Why ever would a festival then break this atmosphere with anachronistic, modern entertainment? The lakeside music festival is already ubiquitous, if not over-done. Does one really need confuse their immersive, maritime atmosphere with Country, Ska, Rock or Blues music? It does not seem to make much sense, but more than one tall ship festival has decided to “Rock the Dock!” to the diminishment of the branding of the event, making the entertainment merely generic and entirely forgettable.
A cautionary tale: a Great Lakes port town had been enjoying a successful maritime heritage festival for over 25 years with an attendance over the weekend of about 30,000 people. They hired musical performers from around the Great Lakes that specialized in maritime tunes. They also encouraged the participation of maritime-themed artisans to vend at their event – photographers, sculptors, sign makers – all with wares celebrating the nautical life. Then there was a change of management of the event and the newly appointed music director replaced the maritime performers with his personal Christian Rock band, a Country and Western band and a Ska band, among others. Within three years the attendance plummeted to about 3,000 for the weekend, vendors fled en masse and eventually the event was permanently cancelled after nearly three decades of success. It was estimated that a weekend maritime event in this town generated about 3.5 million dollars in business for the local economy – completely lost because someone ignored the maritime theme of the event.
Fortunately, the Great Lakes are surrounded by a generous amount of maritime-themed performers. In fact, globally, the maritime music genre is very popular, with groups and well-attended events (40-110K people attending!) in Quebec, Ireland, Scotland, England, Cornwall, Brittany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, New Zealand and Australia! One very successful festival that is part of the Tall Ships Challenge® brings over maritime musicians from Europe every tour year. Be like that festival!
Here is information on a few local-to-the-Great Lakes maritime musicians available to entertain for your event.
Bounding Main | http://www.boundingmain.com
David HB Drake | http://www.davidhbdrake.com
Tom Kastle | http://www.tomkastle.com
Julie Thompson | http://www.julievoice.com
Rick Fitzgerald | http://www.rootrivermusic.com/
Song of the Lakes | http://www.songofthelakes.com
Lee Murdock | http://www.leemurdock.com
The Jovial Crew | http://thejovialcrew.com/
Beyond the Great Lakes musical acts there is a world of performers that can be discovered on the Maritime Music Directory International: https://seashanties4all.com.
© 2024 Dean Calin
Dean Calin has been performing maritime music for over 30 years. He has performed as an Elizabethan Seadog and his acapella group, Bounding Main, has been performing across North America and Europe for over 20 years. He performed, wrote and directed in the Chicago theater scene in the ‘80s.
Dean Calin
wsm@deancalin.com
Mobile: +1 262-366-8591