In previous years the festival has proved popular among bearded real-ale drinkers whose other hobbies include caravanning, rallying campaigns to save rural post offices, and speaking loudly about bird watching in pubs

 

However, this year’s line-up promises to reach out to a whole new generation of fans by attracting a younger audience - the kind of long-haired, tequila-drinking students who get their kicks from eco-tourism, rallying anti-capitalist campaigns and talking loudly, but in an non-aggressive manner, to women in pubs.

 

Acts popular in previous years have included Australian trio ‘Fire Down Below’, local twins ‘Drunk’ n’ Sailor’ and the well-known black performer of slave ancestry ‘Shanty Jackson’. Yet these have been swept aside to make way for a new generation of vigilante shanty acts, such as ‘Getting-High Tide’, ‘The Jolly Rogerers’ and ‘Shaft me on a clipper ship’.

 

The event has also grabbed the attention of high profile acts from the world of pop and rock whose exposure to sea shanties – historical songs with a rhythmic timing designed to aid seamen – has inspired them to create shanty versions of their own soulless and tiresome sound-litter.

 

Artists set to appear include U2, with their reworked classic, ‘Starboard bloody Starboard’; Take That, performing as ‘Tack That’ for one night only, re-vitalising popular hits like ‘Could it be mainsail?’; and even a hip-hop contingent as Eminem’s brooding alter ego gets an outing with a new version of his popular hit, ‘The real Slim Shanty.”

 

The event organiser, Hull City Council, is delighted that a younger audience will attend, yet critics are less convinced.  As news broke that acts will share the same stage, potentially leading to friction amongst different age groups, local teenager Davette Jones told us, “I couldn’t give a flying fuck. As long as I’m backstage sucking off Eminem afterwards, like at Manchester Apollo, it’ll be worth all the sea-singing bollocks. ”

 

Local trawler fisherman and hardcore shanty fan Somerset Vaughan felt similarly benign. ‘I’ve got nothing against them young ‘uns. For the good-old traditional stuff I’ll stick a finger in my ear and make my ‘a-heeeeeey’ noises like I’ve done every year since 1976, and when that modern rubbish strikes up I’ll just pop a finger in my other ear and fart like a Russian deck-hand.”