Rum & Shrub Shantymen

Our film festival weekend celebrating the River Tamar gets off to a fine start with the Rum and Shrub Shantymen, a group of traditional singers from Cornwall with a worldwide reputation for lively singing of shanties, sea songs and folk songs.

This well-travelled band perform all over Europe as well as at festivals in the UK, especially in Cornwall, including the Falmouth Shanty Festivals. More recent ventures have included a tour of the Eastern seaboard of the USA , a trip to Waterford in Southern Ireland, some memorable visits to the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen and national TV advert work.

Their unusual name is taken from one of Cornwall's best kept secrets - Shrub being an alcoholic cordial reputed to have been enjoyed by smugglers to disguise the salty taste of their contraband, and rum being rum.

Free entry, chatty atmosphere, donations to the band would be very welcome.