Fundy Sea Shanty Festival

[00:00:02] Hello there, I'm Mark, the Enby Traveler and here we talk about New Brunswick stuff. Today I want to feature one of those festivals that we find cropping up here in New Brunswick, particularly during the summer months. This is the Sea Shanty

[00:00:21] Festival that's in St. Martin's in August. I'm interviewing the artistic director of the festival and we will be sharing details about what's coming and how you can get involved if you're living in the area or if you're coming into

[00:00:41] the area. So sit back, have a cup of coffee, get one for me too if you want by going to my website and purchasing one and here it comes. Wait for it. I have with me today Gary Keynes, the artistic director of Fundy Sea Shanty Festival

[00:01:06] which is going to be held in St. Martin's on August 9, 10 and 11 this year. Welcome to Enby Traveler, Gary. Mark, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Well two years ago when I learned there was going to be a Sea Shanty Festival

[00:01:22] in St. Martin's I pictured a group of little huts being set up on the shore of the Bay of Fundy and everybody fishing was some time later that I discovered just how wrong this Yankee was. Well that's part of our mandate to

[00:01:38] educate people because in this part of the world sadly but it's true a lot of people don't understand what Sea Shantys are. In many cases they don't even know that's what we're trying to alleviate, trying to fix. Well please

[00:01:51] explain to my listeners what Sea Shantys are and their historical significance in maritime culture. Okay what they are not are drinking songs so many of them have become drinking songs and I'll talk about that in a minute but

[00:02:06] what they are the Shantys themselves, the Sea Shantys were the songs that sailors sang back in the ages sail when all the work was done by hand. They were work songs, songs that they would sing mainly in the merchant trade

[00:02:21] but there are a few Shantys that were sung in the British Navy for example but they were songs that were sung to the rhythm of the work so they knew on which syllables to pull. One person can't raise the mainsail, ten people

[00:02:34] can't raise the mainsail unless they're all working together so what happened and these date back to the 1400s there's written records in the 1500s I know about men singing while they were at sea but they would

[00:02:48] sing the song and they knew on which syllable to pull and then when that syllable came up they'd pull again or be on a beat. Another type of Shanty was for pushing so as you're pushing the capstan around and that's the big drum

[00:03:01] around which the anchor cable is wrapped so they would put these bars in the capstan and they would push on them around and around as they brought the anchor in and they were yeah I mean you would sing them and you would sort

[00:03:17] of pace yourself to the beat of the song in many cases and they were more just for entertainment, for enjoyment making a difficult task easier but on the long haul or short haul Shantys they had to pull together and they needed a break

[00:03:33] between the pulls and they knew on which syllable to do the pulling. That's fascinating. Now what's your personal journey with Sea Shantys including your acapello group before the mast? Okay so when I was I'll say 14 years old I heard

[00:03:48] the term Sea Shanty for the first time and my dad born in 1919 grew up in outport Newfoundland when he was 12 he went to work on his uncle Schooner. Now back there the only reason is my father would tell me that you went to

[00:04:01] school was to become a minister or a teacher those are the only careers they were familiar with that needed a high school and beyond education. Well he wasn't going to have any of that so at the age of 12 off he went so I went to

[00:04:18] my dad I said did you guys did you sing when you're on board this schooner? He said yes we did and it just drew me in it was a seminal moment for me and I thought okay this is special so about high school and on Morso University I

[00:04:36] started to collect them and over the years I've been in a number of groups you know guitars, banjos, fiddles, Irish, Newfoundland type music we'd always bring in some Sea Shantys most of them to music but I decided about 30 years ago I

[00:04:51] one day have an acapella Sea Shanty group and I put the call out 17 years ago to fellows with whom I had been in these these musical groups before and I said this is what I'm thinking and here we are 17 years later still at it.

[00:05:08] That's fantastic so what inspired you to start the Fundy Sea Shanty Festival? There's only one other festival Sea Shanty Festival in Canada that's in St. Jean-Port-Jolique, Quebec and we were there twice and we sort of kicked

[00:05:24] around the idea of a festival and now one time I made a list of all the work that needed all the things would have to be done if this were to happen and the conversation kind of stopped at that point.

[00:05:36] I guess what the fellows wanted some of the guys in my group they wanted to perform in a festival at home didn't want to do the heavy lifting so it was just something I kicked around in my head for a few years.

[00:05:49] Nathan Evans recorded the Wellerman during the pandemic and all of a sudden Sea Shantys became a big thing on TikTok. I forget if you go to hashtag Sea Shantys now on TikTok it's over six billion reviews or whatever they call that.

[00:06:09] It became a thing I guess was that time I said all right maybe the time is right because as I approach potential sponsors and if I talk to people who give grants now they'll have an idea what I'm talking about.

[00:06:24] So I said all right and I did a lot of hiking during the pandemic. I'm here alone so I'd strap on my gear and off I'd go and did a lot of thinking how that would work.

[00:06:35] So anyway if it wasn't for the pandemic, if it wasn't for Nathan recording that song I don't know I'm not sure we'd be where we are. So why did you choose St. Martins as the location for the festival and how does that fit into the town's history?

[00:06:51] Okay some good questions there. I have to admit I grew up in the city in my mind initially I pictured this festival being in the city what a great spot right St. John with its history of seafaring and shipbuilding.

[00:07:04] And my group was contacted by people in St. Martins. I received a message saying person's going to call you interested in having you down for Canada Day. Now this was year two, first full year of the pandemic.

[00:07:21] So I'm chatting with one of the organizers and we realized and as it turned out the pandemic cancelled the event. But as I'm chatting with her I said here's an idea what do you think of this? And I mentioned the Sea Shanty Festival and she immediately said

[00:07:36] you have to do that here. And then the light went on I thought yeah St. Martins. I mean in St. John it would just be one more thing. In St. Martins we take over the whole village and its history

[00:07:47] to shipbuilding, seafaring and it's such a pretty, pretty spot. So that was it, now looking back. So what can attendees expect to experience at the Fundy Sea Shanty Festival this year? Well first of all it's about the music and my goal each year is to have

[00:08:06] at least 60% traditional shanties sung from the main stage. One of the things I do and I'm in the process of doing that now is contacting the groups and say tell me your set list or as long as you plan to sing.

[00:08:18] Any sea shanty that's been written has already been written. Right? That's a thing of the past. If people are writing them now they're writing in the style of sea shanties. But unless you go on board a ship and raise the main soul like Stam Rogers, Barrett's privateers,

[00:08:35] read an article one time it said one of the more famous sea shanties and I screamed at the screens and no. Right? It's in the style of a sea shanty. So all the shanties that will ever be written have been written

[00:08:49] and we want to keep those songs alive. What we don't want is three Wellermans in a row. So I check with the groups to make sure we don't have that because all traditional sea shanty groups, everyone, there's a 5% of shanties we all sing because they're quite popular.

[00:09:08] So there's that. We have main stage of music on Saturday and Sunday. Our closer this year are the Barrett McNeils. Now they're not sea shanty. Remember I said 60% sea shanty, but they have name recognition. In the end we need to meet our budget

[00:09:23] and with the Barrett McNeils they have quite a following. So they do maritime music and that kind of fits in. Last year we had Lenny Galant and Sean McCann. Well Sean McCann did a lot of sea shanties. Lenny again he writes about the sea.

[00:09:37] So we have the main stage music. Friday night we have two seatings at the Caves restaurant for a seafood chowder. Dave Goss is doing three walk-in talks. One of them is on Friday night. There's a whiskey tasting and we have a pub

[00:09:52] called The Privateer's Mark at the Legion and it's going to feature the group, dram and a draw from Kent County. They're gonna be the performers. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we have workshops, we have historical lectures, a sea glass workshop. There's a mermaid going to be swimming in.

[00:10:10] We have beer tastings, we have a rum tasting Saturday evening. The music goes till 10 o'clock Saturday night and Sunday we wrap up at about 6.30. Across the street from the Amphitheater Harbor Park it's part of Harbor Park. We have the Harbor Bazaar, it's a vendors village.

[00:10:32] We're gonna have 20, 22 crafters there. So they'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday, food trucks. But at the Harbor Bazaar we are going to have a number of groups performing these 20 minute pop-up sets. So a number of the performers are on the main stage

[00:10:47] part of their contract is to also entertain throughout the village. So there'll be pretty well all day Saturday and much of the afternoon Sunday these 20 minute pop-up concerts at the Harbor Bazaar. We also have performers going to the patios of some of our sponsors in the harbor itself.

[00:11:06] The RCMP pipe and drums band are gonna be a 12 noon on Saturday down in the harbor so that'll be cool. And there's no admission fee for the pop-up concerts in the vendors village. Well, that's pretty fantastic. We'll have a link to your website on the show notes

[00:11:22] and all of the program and everything is there. Can you tell us about some of the partnerships and sponsorships that have been critical for making this festival a reality? My first stop was Envision St. John. Again, I've never done anything like this before.

[00:11:39] I've performed in festivals, I've been to a lot of festivals but I thought there were people out there who I need to turn to. So I met with Envision and of course their mandate is to encourage growth in the St. John and surrounding areas.

[00:11:53] And they're quite interested when I talked with St. Martins because as well as the Department of Tourism, they were looking at ways to get more money into these outlying communities. So I started with Envision and Port St. John, they came on board.

[00:12:10] Then I spoke to other sponsors, went in, had a pitch deck made a professionally made pitch deck. Remember when I pitched to Envision St. John the committee said, you know, some people come in with napkins with notes written on it.

[00:12:26] But I had Amy Allen marketing, Amy did a wonderful job putting this deck together. So it was impressive. So I talked to them, Ray Gracewood area 506, Envision said you should talk to Ray because he's got a lot of lessons learned having traveled down this road.

[00:12:43] And we got together and he was a very valuable resource. And throughout the first year and part of the second year I'd often contact him with questions and he was always very prompt in answering me. And then of course, as I said with the province

[00:12:54] they're discovered that there are funds out there to support these things. And St. Martin seemed to be a good spot to attract federal or provincial funding. That's fantastic. What role do volunteers play in the success of the festival and how can interested individuals get involved?

[00:13:11] Is there still time to do that? Yeah, as a matter of fact, we're three weeks out. We are 100% volunteer. So none of us get paid for this. So that's important to mention. So volunteer, well you name it, volunteers from parking vehicles. Well, there's the core committee

[00:13:28] that works all year to put this together. But then the worker visa on the weekend, parking cars, scanning passes, making sure people put their compost in the compost bin and their cans in the can't bin. If you don't monitor that you're gonna end up with having hot dogs

[00:13:46] and with the water bottles. I mean, you name it, selling merchandise, acting as hosts to our presenters and performers. We probably have enough to cover all our bases but it'd be nice to have a few more. So just go to the website, contact us, ahoyatfundyseshadefestival.com

[00:14:06] and say I'm interested in being a volunteer. I guarantee we'll get back to you quickly. I'm sure you will. Looking ahead, what's your long-term vision for the Fundyseshante Festival? Well, I'd like to keep this going. I'd like to see us make it to year five and beyond.

[00:14:22] They've just built a new theater in St. Martin's. So the first two years we were on the platform they have in the park now that they built this new theater and we're excited about being on that.

[00:14:33] So we'd like to get some good use of that over the years. My goal, and it's starting to happen. I received a message three weeks ago from a group in New Zealand and said we're a shanty group and we'd like to discuss the possibility

[00:14:48] of coming over next year or somewhere beyond that. And they told me the group that they had been in touch with. There was another group from New Zealand that was there this year. Other groups in Europe have contacted us. So they're talking to groups that have been here

[00:15:03] and I guess my goal by say year eight, no let's say year five is that if you're at the big festival in Falmouth, England or Paypal, France and you're chatting in the green room with groups at some point someone says,

[00:15:17] hey have you been to the Funday C-Santy Festival yet? You should go it's a lot of fun. So I want this to become a premier stock for shanty groups in the world. Oh that sounds great. I always like to finish my interview

[00:15:32] by asking what is at least one thing that you enjoy about living here in New Brunswick? My favorite part of New Brunswick, my first thought is how friendly people are. Now I grew up here, I just assumed the whole world was like this

[00:15:47] but I spent time in other parts of the country some time in Europe and I discovered that it is rather unique here how friendly people are. And I like to think I'm contributing to that. Just the other day I was walking uptown and there was a couple,

[00:16:04] it was pretty obvious to me that they were tourists. So I just spoke and asked them and they said yeah they were from Ontario and he said where would you recommend, what do you recommend? And see so we had a great old chat room

[00:16:16] I was making some recommendations to them. That doesn't happen in Toronto, that doesn't happen in Vancouver. So there we go. And of course the weather although things are going in a different direction but I do like the weather we have here.

[00:16:33] Well and particularly the weather that we have here in St. John because we get natural air conditioning that drops the temperature just a little. Yeah well I grew up on the West side so I appreciate that. Yeah I'm a hero in the country of the Kingston Peninsula.

[00:16:51] I'll head into the city and you might of many days see at least 10 degrees drop. Well Gary thank you so much for your time and I'm looking forward to getting a report back not only about your sea shanty festival this year

[00:17:05] but looking forward to what you're talking about is going to be happening year four, year five and beyond. It's a great thing for New Brunswick to have something like this that's new, that's different and out in a little community that certainly can benefit from all of the attention.

[00:17:25] Mark thanks for your attention and interest in this festival. You have a great day. You too thank you. Now it's been a real joy being with you today. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to the podcast. If you go to my website mbtraveler.com

[00:17:47] you can leave a comment, you can do a rating and I look forward to seeing you back here again next week and oh by the way you can also buy me a copy there on that website if you care to. Have a great day and a wonderful week.