Suffolk Herring Festival

At last, Guardian endorses herring use

KS — Sat, 11 May 2013 12:34:22 +0000

The Guardian today has caught up with the trend and realised that herring are good for you.

Read the story and see the recipes by clicking here.

Fishy on a dishy

KS — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:26:17 +0000

You shall have a fishy on a little dishy,
You shall have a fishy when the boat gets in.
You shall have a herring on a little dishy,
You shall have a herring when the boat gets in.

We’ll be celebrating Albert Herring too

KS — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:49:37 +0000

Taking inspiration from Britten’s comic opera Albert Herring, Aldeburgh Music is holding six community feasts around Suffolk in the course of the Britten Centenary year. The last of these events will take place as part of the Suffolk Herring Festival – come and join in the Albert Herring ‘feastivitites’on Sunday 27th October.

26 weeks to the 2013 Festival

KS — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:24:10 +0000

It’s 26 weeks to go until the 2013 Suffolk Herring Festival. Between now and the weekend of 26th/27th October we’ll be releasing herringalia of all kinds. So sign on now to get regular Herring News updates, and follow us on Twitter @SuffHerrFest.

Michael Grigsby

KS — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:02:00 +0000

Michael Grigsby, who made two fishing films in the tradition of John Grierson’s Drifters (1929), has died at the age of 76. Deckie Learner (1965) concerned a young trawler apprentice, and A Life Apart (1973) showed the relationship between North Sea fishermen and their employers.

You can find limited information on the BFI website: Deckie Learner, A Life Apart

Swedish herring recipes

KS — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:27:11 +0000

There is great-looking book of herring recipes published by Liljedahl Publishing. We’ll try to get a few translated in time for the Suffolk Herring Festival in October!

Shakespeare and the Sea

KS — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:36:26 +0000

Children from Middleton and Peasenhall primary schools gathered at The Bell Green, Middleton on October 6th for a final dress rehearsal before their public performance of ‘Shakespeare and the Sea’ to an enthusiastic audience at the MAFAFAM Festival.

Simon Bridge had been working with the children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 11, since early September, linking words and action from ‘The Tempest’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Pericles’ with a traditional sea-shanty. Some of the children had been working in their classrooms on the story of ‘The Tempest’ and also worked on the performance with their teachers outside of our weekly rehearsals.

Not all of the children were able to be at MAFAFAM, but everyone worked throughout the rehearsal period with great commitment and enthusiasm. This gave them time to add more depth and detail to the action, which told of a witch’s curse on a sailor bound for Aleppo, a magical storm at sea, a pirate raid and the difficulties of fishermen trying to land a catch which turned out to be “a rusty armour” (or, in our performance, an old dustbin lid!)

As well as learning lines of their own, the youngest children used musical instruments and other props to create the sounds and atmosphere of the storm from the ‘Tempest’, while everyone put everything they had into the sea-shanty ‘Weigh Haul Away’.

Simon had been working with each of the three classes at the school separately up until the last rehearsal, just the day before the performance, each class working on its own section of the show. Amazingly, the children were keen to learn new pieces of text and action right up to that last rehearsal, when they all came together to fuse the three elements into one performance.

And what a performance it was! Costumed as pirates, sailors and even as seagulls, the children delighted audience members, teachers and the MAFAFAM organisers so much that the school organised a second performance for parents at Middleton School’s assembly the following Friday.

The teachers at both schools gave impressive support to Simon’s work with the children, and the children themselves are to be congratulated for their exceptional hard work and enthusiasm.

The Suffolk Herring Festival is pleased to have sponsored this project, which obviously gave local children a much greater awareness of the sea and its bounty, as well as giving everyone involved a lot of fun.

Shakespeare and the Sea on 6th October

KS — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:00:34 +0000

Since early September Simon Bridge has been working with children from Middleton Primary School on a piece, marrying words from The Tempest, Macbeth and Pericles with song and music. This work will engage local children with the importance of the sea in Suffolk life, and it has been supported with a grant from Suffolk Herring Festival.

You can see the performance at MAFAFAM (Middleton and Fordley Autumn Food and Music Festival) at 1pm on Saturday October 6th on the green by the Bell Inn. Come along!

Support NUTFA

KS — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:33:59 +0000

The Suffolk Herring Festival is pleased to support the New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association.

NUTFA is the only UK organisation specifically dedicated to the support, survival and development of the under ten metre fleet, and aims for a viable and profitable under ten sector. It is a non-profit making organisation and represents its members in the under 10m and non-sector at local, UK and EU levels, defending their rights and fighting for their future. It represents all under ten sectors, quota and non quota, trawlers and netters, liners, shellfishermen and all other licensed fishermen trying to make a living from the sea

The Suffolk Herring Festival has joined as an associate member and you might like to support their work too.

Inshore Fisheries Meetings

KS — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:12:10 +0000

The Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority is holding the next round of community engagement meetings following its Statutory Authority Meeting in July. You are invited to attend any or all of the meetings to discuss their work in the area as well as a chance to talk about other marine issues with representatives from Natural England and the Marine Management Organisation.

The Ipswich meeting is on 8th August 2012, and you can download a poster here – IpswichAug2012-CE Poster