Events

An ale & cider festival set across Historic Harwich, every venue walking distance from the next. Pubs, former pubs, galleries, a brewery and more!

Save the Date – The Harwich Festival will be taking place between the 20th – 30th June 2019!

t’s a niche, family friendly, boutique music festival held once a year in beautiful surroundings, overlooking The River Stour and the Grayson Perry designed “House for Essex”. Organised by the village of Wrabness whose Volunteers work incredibly hard so that you can enjoy the best party of the summer.

WrabFest is a not-for-profit event with any proceeds being invested into future events and Wrabness based community activities.

‘Bobbits Hole’ Open Day, Dovercourt

Every September some 40,000 volunteers across England organise 5,000 events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore

The Harwich International Shanty Festival was set up in 2006 to organise and co-ordinate an annual sea shanty festival over a weekend in October. Through concerts, ‘singarounds’, pub sessions, talks and workshops, the history and heritage of Harwich as part of the British seafaring nation is celebrated, promoted and perpetuated by local people and groups. This is unique for the county of Essex and is attracting audiences countrywide and beyond. 

It has journeyed a long way since its small beginnings with a bunch of friends meeting up in a couple of pubs to drink good beer and sing good shanties, but we like to think that the initial idea of a cosy pub atmosphere, good friends and rousing shanties is still at the heart of all we do. Nowadays the whole town of Old Harwich resounds to the sound of Shanties and Sea songs and in addition there are concerts, barge trips, street theatre, maritime crafts, pirates, a Shanty train and much more.

To celebrate the voyage the Illuminate Festival is held in Harwich on the day after Thanksgiving each year, consisting of a torch-light procession through the town including giant torches resembling the ship and Captain Jones.

Kings Head Street Christmas Market, Harwich.

The Harwich half marathon is being organised by Harwich Runners and the Rotary Club of Harwich & Dovercourt, to commemorate the Mayflower 400 celebrations. The route will take part of the original course from 1982, when the tradition first began. The race has not been organised since 1991, and so Harwich Runners hope to create a festival-style atmosphere to make sure the event goes with a bang.