SHANTY singers who took part in this year’s Teignmouth festival have handed out £3,000 to four charities.

The popular event, which took place in September, saw a record number of performers taking part.

Now the proceeds have been handed over to the four charities: Teign Heritage Centre, Rowcroft Hospice, Alice Cross Centre and the RNLI.

Lou Bagnald, curator at Teign Heritage Centre said: ‘Everyone at Teign Heritage Centre would like to say a huge thank you to the Teign Maritime and Shanty Festival for this generous donation.

‘This year’s festival was an overwhelming success thanks to their hard work and we were delighted to be one of the venues.

‘This very welcome donation to our charity will help us to fulfil our vision of ‘Telling the stories, and keeping the memories of Teignmouth and Shaldon alive.’

Julia Street, general manager at the Alice Cross Centre, said: ‘It was a great pleasure to be asked to be involved with the Teign Maritime and Shanty Festival again this year, to host workshops at the centre and be recipients of this wonderful donation.

‘Our volunteers really enjoyed marshalling at the various venues and soaking up the unique and uplifting festival atmosphere.

‘Huge thanks go to the festival team for such a marvellous community event. We look forward to being part of next year’s festival.’

Debbi Shotton, senior community fundraiser for Rowcroft Hospice, said: ‘We were so pleased to not only be a beneficiary of this joyful event, but for our volunteers to be able to assist with marshalling over the weekend.

‘This donation will help us provide care and support to our patients and their families at the most difficult of times, across South Devon in communities just like Teignmouth.’

Adrian Knowles, vice chairman of Teignmouth RNLI fundraising team, said: ‘Once again a massive thank you from the RNLI for the wonderful donation of £750.

‘We really enjoyed helping out over the weekend of the Maritime and Shanty festival, and we are already looking forward to helping again in 2022.

‘Well done to the whole committee on running such a fabulous event.’

Kevin Booker, chairman of Teign Maritime and Shanty Festival Committee, commented: ‘We were all blessed with fabulous weather and a record number of talented performers and passionate maritime contributors.

‘The Teign Estuary community, many generous supporters and our amazing team of over 100 volunteers welcomed thousands of appreciative visitors from all over Devon and beyond.

‘Thanks to our visitors generosity, we are very proud to be in a position to increase the donation to our nominated charities by 50 per cent this year.’