Events

The 2020 Ale Trail will be the fifth in its Springtime slot and happily coincides with the Mayflower 400 celebrations. We hope to make the 2020 Harwich Ale Trail a truly special event!
If you haven’t been before – think of it as a five day beer and cider festival across multiple venues in a one square mile area. The past venues have included pubs, cafes, restaurants, a hotel and a sailing club. We’ll announce the 2020 venues in nearer the date..

There’s one beer list for the whole event, complete with a map and information. Public transport is very close with buses and trains stopping within 200m of one of the venues!

Harwich Town Council has the privilege of being permitted to elect a Town Mayor, a long-standing tradition originally granted by Royal Charter in 1604. The Mayor is elected annually at the Annual Statutory Mayor Making Meeting held in May.

Celebrate the voyage of The Mayflower at St Nicholas Church

Built for the London & North Eastern Railway, 61306 Mayflower is one of two surviving B1 Class locomotives.

The B1’s were designed as mixed traffic locomotives capable of hauling express passenger trains as well as freight traffic. As powerful, go anywhere engines, the B1’s worked across most of the UK rail network from East Anglia to Scotland.

Come and join us on the hugely popular Tour de Tendring bike ride to raise money for Essex Wildlife Trust. You can cycle on one of three circular routes around the picturesque district of Tendring – perfect cycling country with quiet roads, low hills and views to the sea.

Based at Dovercourt Swimming Pool the Harwich Runners Sprint Triathlon will take in 12 lengths of its 25 metre pool as the first phase of the event.

Save the Date – The Harwich Festival will be taking place between the 25th – 5th July 2020!

Octopus Ahoy! will be the public art event of 2020 in Essex. This large-scale public art event celebrates the 400th anniversary of Captain Christopher Jones’ sea voyage aboard the Mayflower.

Each summer we organise a beer festival in the Harwich Redoubt – a superb circular fort dating from the Napoleonic era just up the road from the original brewery. At the festival we like to showcase our own beers as well as those from other microbreweries accompanied by great music and food.

Come and stroll at Bobbit’s Hole! Bobbit’s Hole is an oasis of peace and tranquillity in the very heart of Dovercourt and is open free of charge to the public each Sunday morning throughout the year.

The annual Maritime Festival returns on Saturday 27 July, 11am – 6pm promising new and exciting attractions around Harwich Quay and Harwich’s iconic Ha’penny Pier.

Every September some 46,000 volunteers across England organise 5,500 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.

Come hither to the historic seaport of Harwich and witness the medieval* spectacle of sausage throwing, as grown men and women try to hurl seasoned pork projectiles as far as they can. Following on from this fabulous frivolity, three fantastic local inns throw open their doors for the gathered masses to test the wares of the finest butchers of the Tendring Hundred and determine the public’s favourite sausage, all washed down with the choicest real ales and ciders.

Historic Harwich was lit up across the weekend as the town began a year of commemorations for Mayflower 400. The Illuminate Festival took place on Friday and Saturday evenings (29-30 November), bringing a lantern parade, Tunnel of Light and projections right along the old town seafront.

Similar festivals have been held at destinations across the UK, Netherlands and USA as places with links to The Mayflower and its Pilgrim voyage mark the historic anniversary. Next year sees the 400^th anniversary of the Transatlantic crossing and a year of events will commemorate the landmark, with Illuminate held around Thanksgiving.

Festive fun at the Kings Street Christmas Market

A bit of Christmas fun for charity