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The Newlyn
Fish Festival, a fundraising event for the Royal National Mission
to Deep Sea Fishermen, is 14 years old this year - and looks set
to be the biggest yet.
Major new attractions, to coincide with SeaBritain 2005, are planned
- including a lifeboat gig race. The festival, which first came
to life in 1991, will be held on the August Bank Holiday Monday,
from 9am to 5pm.
It has now become a major event attracting over 21,000 visitors
each year.
This year the Newlyn Fish Festival will feature a great number
of attractions as it links up with the SeaBritain 2005 festival.
There will be the usual fish auction, knot makers and net menders,
with ships and trawlers open to the public.
On show inside the market and along the quays will be arts and
craft stalls, food outlets, exhibitions and displays relating to
Newlyn's fishing heritage.
The festival will also host the Lifeboat Gig Race, a first in the
history of the festival, which will feature a number of gigs competing
for the Trafalgar trophy.
The celebrations will be inaugurated by the Lord Mayor of the City
of London, Alderman Michael Savory, who is currently running a personal
appeal to raise much needed funds to support the work of the Fishermen's
Mission.
The Newlyn Fish Festival is a great opportunity to shop and try
out new things with the fish market entirely devoted to fish and
its industry.
There will be a large variety of fish and shellfish for sale, cooking
demonstrations and food sampling.
Its centrepiece will be a large display of locally caught seafood
which will be auctioned off to the public at 4pm.
The festival gives the fishermen of Newlyn the opportunity to show
the industry to the wider public. It also acts as a showcase for
fishing-related companies and allied trades to display what is currently
available for the professional fisherman.
Outside the Fish Market a large number of stalls will be selling
arts and craft related products and other articles of interest.
The festival also supports 26 different charities which will display
their own merchandise and items for sale along the pier.
In the harbour the public will have access to the 27 metre fisheries
patrol vessel St Piran, the Mine Countermeasure Vessel HMS Hurworth,
and a large trawler that is operating from the port of Newlyn.
There will also be a coastguard chartered tug, the Anglian Princess,
lifeboat and helicopter rescue and a further demonstration of the
work of the local Coast Guard rescue team.
A special gig race will take place during the festival to mark
'Trafalgar 200.'
The course, which is three miles long, will start and finish at
Newlyn with the race lasting about 30 minutes and ending through
the entrance of the harbour.
There will be a model boat demonstration at low water and Mount's
Bay Lugger Association will provide a sailing and static display
within the harbour area with the lugger Happy Return.
The reconstruction of the lugger Ripple continues to make progress
and will be open to the public to allow them to share in the amazing
craftsmanship of the shipwright and witness first hand the rebirth
of an important piece of Cornwall's maritime history.
The festival will feature some of the best of contemporary Cornish
music.
Among the artists on the main stage throughout the day will be
the Newlyn Male Voice Choir, Janet Eathorne, Dalla, St Keverne Band,
Samba Kernow, Abatutta and Bob & Bob Jobbins.
The festival will also feature a children's performance and a Cornish
dance showdown organised by the Time and Tide project, which works
with the Newlyn Youth Club.
article copyright © THE CORNISHMAN
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