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Foundation Liereliet Workum. (International festival of Maritime Music)

Every year Liereliet Workum organizes a festival of maritime music, the so called International Festival of Maritime Music in Workum. In this festival Shanties and songs of the sea are important.
In former times of big sailingships shanties were sang to controle proceedings and/or pace.
The festival is always in the weekend before the start of the "Strontrace", "Beurtveer", and "Fishingdays" in Workum, but as an organization independent of these activities.
The festival is always in fall, the first weekend from the northern holidays.

It's a festival with:

- Shanties in the most common way, shanties sung by a precentor or shantyman, with a choir (the audience) for the choruses.
- Explanation and background information about the origin and use on board of large ships about the work songs.
- Musicians with a great conectivity with the sea by work or early work or by research to bring out and preserve cultural heritage.
- A wide selection of manifestations of these songs.
- Original and newly shanties and sea songs written in own language and/or dialect
- A strong international character of both participants and audience. 

 

The Foundation Liereliet set one's mind on to the public:

- to get acquainted with the traditional way of singing shanties
- to get acquainted with traditional songs or out of the tradition of other forms of singing during working at for example fishing or around the harbor.
- to get acquainted with the live in- and at sea.
- to raise awareness of the own maritime culture by presenting what other cultures have to offer.
- to offer a varied of groups from home and abroad, who bring traditional seasongs at their own way mainly in the native language.
- to give the audience the opportunity to actively participate.
- to bring back the maritime heritage of music from where is comes, namely the "ferny people"

 

The Festival distinguishes itselfs from other maritime festivals in The Netherlands by: 

 

- giving the audience the opportunty to sing the choruses and songs along.
- during the festival the choruses are presented via projection.
- Unlike other festivals organized in the Netherlands, the emphasis is not on to shanty choirs, but to the originality and authenticity of the shanties and the embodiment of it.
- the festla is having an educational character.
- In the theme shanties and seasongs the music/theater spectacle is unique in the Netherlands.
- from aboard there is a lot of attention and a great appearance.