18 Mondays. Dozens of shanties. Thousands of people. We take a look back at summer season 2026, our biggest one yet.
Whenever we remember, at least one of us (or one of our brilliant collectors) will always do a quick count of our audience size while we’re singing away. This year, on warm, sunny evenings – of which there were a good few for a change! – we regularly topped 200. Occasionally we topped 250.
It’s a rough count. People come and go or move around. But as you’ll know if you’ve been a regular at our performances over the years, that’s a hefty increase even on last year.
It wasn’t the only change. Marianne joined us. A whole bunch of new shanties joined the roster: New York Girls, Le Capitaine de Saint Malo, Fire Down Below, Four Shouts in One Day, Bound for the Rio Grande, Blackpool Pub Crawl and our, erm, updated take on Sailor’s Hornpipe became regular parts of the set, amongst others. And, as always, you were singing along to them in no time, as though they’d been in the set for years.
And you donated. We’re writing this at a challenging time when not quite everyone is on the same page about the RNLI and its mission to save lives – any and all lives – at sea. But this year our donations hit record levels (we’ll reveal exactly how much soon). We think that says something.
So thank you.
Thanks to our brilliant sound engineers: Elizabeth, Zofia, Julian and, of course, Oli, who left us towards the end of the season to start a new job miles away.
Thanks to all our collectors: Beth, Ros, Sue, several of our brilliant ‘regulars’ and Cheryl, St Annes Mayor and a fantastic supporter not just of the RNLI but also of us.
Thanks to Lytham St Annes RNLI for letting us do what we do on their turf.
But most of all, thanks to you for coming out in all weathers. For singing and clapping along. For donating. For making it all worthwhile.
A quick story to finish: towards the end of the season, Zofia was sat in the middle of the crowd on sound duties. At the end of the set we asked her how it was sounding.
“Honestly, she said, I’m not sure – everyone around me was singing so loudly I couldn’t really tell!”
We’ll take that.
Looking ahead
Right now, we’re back in rehearsals working on a whole new bundle of songs – and we’re already excited to share them with you.
We’ll be performing throughout the autumn and winter and you can find the details here: https://www.theshantycrew.co.uk/upcoming-gigs/
And then, on 3 May 2026, we’ll be back for a whole new summer season of shantying.
We hope you’ll join us.