Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival Returns

Press release from PMFF:

The Board of the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival is excited to announce that the festival will be returning to the streets of Portsmouth this year for the 22nd annual festival. The festival will be the last weekend in September (the 24th and 25th), all day. Details can be found at http://pmffest.org/.

“After the uncertainty of the last couple of years, the prospect of us all coming together again to share music and community is particularly thrilling!” said PMFF Board member Robert Mckeown.

This year’s festival features longtime New England musician, Revels leader, and recent Internet sensation David Coffin; New York-based Vienna Carroll, a singer, playwright, and actor who interprets (among other things) the African-American sailors’ experience through music; and Cliff Haslam, who has anchored the legendary Monday night chantey sings at the Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn., for almost 50 years.

PMFF President Chris Maden said, “David Coffin’s prior appearance at PMFF provided an amazing viral Internet video from Market Square. Vienna Carroll absolutely blew everyone away earlier this year at the Connecticut Sea Music Festival. And Cliff Haslam is a living legend in the sea music community… I’m not sure Portsmouth knows what it’s in for, but it’s going to be great!”

The Saturday evening concert will feature those headliners as well as the winner of this year’s maritime songwriting contest. Other festival programming will be very similar to previous years’, with roving sailors on Saturday morning, an open chantey sing-along Saturday afternoon, and a grand finale chantey blast in Market Square.

Other performers appearing this year are Mary Garvey, a singer-songwriter from the Pacific Northwest, and composer of many maritime favorites; London Julie and Friends, a local act with a little extra this year; Mudhook, another perennial local favorite at the festival; Rick and Donna Nestler, sailors and musicians from upstate New York with a long list of accolades; The Portermen, a men’s chantey group from Newburyport; Connecticut sea music legend Don Sineti; Skylark Trad Band, a trio from Connecticut with deep, wide-ranging musical backgrounds; and Heather Wood, who got her start as a performer with The Young Tradition and has continued to enthrall and educate with her repertoire and delivery ever since.

“I’m looking forward to the festival and to hearing, once again, live chantey and maritime music all around historic Portsmouth,” said Gail Finn, PMFF Secretary.

During the course of the pandemic, a large international community of maritime musicians and music lovers has come together. In order to continue those connections, there will be an online component to the 2022 festival. Events will be live-streamed from one location during the festival; there will also be online-only content available, featuring performances by folk music favorite Bob Zentz and newcomer Sara Banleigh, and other presentations and workshops.

Linn Phipps, a British member of the PMFF Advisory Committee who has spearheaded the online component, said, “We’ve built up a great online, international community over the last couple of years. For those not able to attend in person, we’re delighted to offer a full, rich festival experience, with a mix of concerts, workshops, sing-arounds and another Shanty Big Sing. We are excited about this innovation as we are running this online element as a concurrent and integral part of PMFF, and we think this will be a model for future festivals.”

The entire PMFF community is looking forward to returning to the streets of Portsmouth after two years away.

This press release was produced by PMFF. The views expressed here are the author's own.