Stormy Weather, Boys!
The theme of this year’s Shanties is Nautical Weather – we embark on a wild journey between 22 and 25 February.
Remember the exhibition Turner and the Elements at the National Museum in Krakow? The English artist was a master of expressing the motion of sea waves and ships, so much so that looking at his paintings makes you feel as though you’re immersed in the ocean and can almost taste the saltwater. If you want to experience that feeling again, head to at least one of the fifteen concerts held as part of the 37th International Sea Song Festival Shanties 2018. Four stages around Kraków resound with classic shanties, sea folk, and nautical, lakeside and tourist ballads.
Want to experience a true hurricane of emotions? Head to the ballad concert From Storm to Storm opening the festival. Whims of the weather are a piffle to true seadogs, as shown with the sea song concert Windy Old Weather! When four teenagers first dreamed of great sea voyages, desert islands and pirates’ treasures thirty years ago, none of them imagined their stage journey to last this long. Mietek Folk Olsztyn is celebrating with a rollicking birthday party.
If you’d like to find out why you must never light a cigarette from a candle, or why the albatross is a bad omen, head to the performance of rum tales On the Bright, Misty Islands of Hawaii… The concert of classic shanties Down, Derry Down… recalls the finest sailing ships of all time, frequently compared to beautiful, sleek women clad in white racing over the waves. Finally, we’ll discover how Shanties 2018 deals with tempestuous elements during the closing gig What Care We for Stormy Weather. We’ll party as far as the horizon!
And of course the festival has something especially for the youngest sailors, with the concerts for kids led by the ever-reliable ensembles Klang and Zejman & Garkumpel. As usual there will also be the traditional afterparties and the singalong with The Leaving of Liverpool on the Main Market Square. (Artur Jackowski, "Karnet" magazine)
