Whitby Fish & Ships Festival

The Whitby Fish and Ships Festival is back for 2025 promising a lively celebration of Whitby’s rich fishing heritage with cookery demonstrations and fish craft tips from top local chefs, incredible live music from local bands and sea balladeers, family activities and entertainment, free craft sessions, local exhibitors and so much more!

Head down to Whitby Marina Front Car Park on Saturday 17 May and Sunday 18 May. 10am to 4pm, bar/music marquee open till 11pm on Saturday.

Fish Craft Marquee

Sponsored by the Magpie Café, enjoy filleting and cooking demos from local chefs. Chef appearances will be announced nearer the time.

 Craft marquee

Whitby’s Library, Museums and Art Gallery are joining together again at Fish and Ships 25 to bring creative activities for kids to the event. With displays about what is going on in these local attractions, and fun creative activities exploring sailing vessels real and imaginary, you won’t want to miss it.

A story telling corner will be set up with a programme of maritime themed story sessions across the weekend courtesy of Whitby Library.

The Captain Cook Memorial Museum will be bringing their knowledge of all things nautical, along with pens and paper to help kids design and create their own 2-dimensional sailing vessels. Colour and create our specially designed origami  “fortune teller”.  Once completed you can use this device to guide you to our fantastic local attractions. You can also learn where the saying ‘a square meal’ came from, what sailors used to eat on their voyages and discover the link between sailors and astronauts!

Pannett Art Galley team will be on hand to inspire young creatives with their designs – will your boat be carrying a pirate on the high seas, a fisherman, or an adventurer like Captain Cook?

Whitby Museum will be bringing their beach finds sand trays – will you uncover fossils? sea glass? How well do you know your beach finds?

Come on down and get involved.

 Music Marquee

Made in Whitby and Whitby Brewery will be bringing toe-tapping music from local bands. The Full lineup and timings will be announced shortly.

Saturday Performances

12.00-13.15 Marske Fishermans Choir
13.20-14.20   TBC
14.30-15.30 The Jake Leg Jug Band
16.00-18.00 The Jack Tars
18.00-19.00 Tug O War
19.00-21.00 Skandals
21.00- 11:00 DJ

Sunday Performances

11.00-12.00 Men of Staithes.
12.00-13.30 Old Time Sailors.
13.45-14.30 Blanty.
14.45 -16.15 TBC.

Local exhibitors and stalls

Browse the stalls along Dock End and pick up some artisan goods and local produce. Stalls within Marina Front car park and Dock End. The William Riley Lifeboat will be on display on Dock End.

Street Entertainment

Whitby Pirate Festival will be entertaining visitors and there may be a special Krampus appearance. If you keep your eyes peeled Animated Objects will be on walkabout aboard their land-based galleons and a navy ship in Whitby across the festival weekend. Give them a wave, stop for a selfie and prepare yourself for some hearty banter and tall tales as the pirate code clashes swords with the pride of the King’s fleet! There may even be a shanty or two on the way...

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey will yet again be opening its doors for free to lucky local residents over the Whitby Fish and Ships Festival weekend.  If you're a YO21 or YO22 resident, simply bring proof of address and ID for free entry on 17 and 18 May.

Even if you're not a resident, why not visit the awe-inspiring abbey in between the festival fun to uncover years of dark history and snap some incredible photos to enjoy as a souvenir of your weekend?  Whitby Abbey is open 10am - 5pm each day, and you can save 15% on entry when you pre-book online at https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/whitby-abbey/

There’ll be Fisherman Olympics with fishermen competing against each other in their everyday tasks to see who is superior. There’ll also be a fantastic tug-o-war at the end on Saturday.

Meanwhile Fisher Lassie Bidi Iredale will be entertaining festival goers with fishing songs from long ago and tales about the fisher lassies that used to work along the East Coast

Whitby Lobster Hatchery will be bringing their tanks along to allow visitors to get up close to their lobsters.  And there’ll also be children’s fairground rides to keep youngsters entertained.

Over at Whitby RNLI lifeboat station, pre booked ticket holders (via Whitby RNLI Facebook page) will be able to tour the new Shannon class all-weather lifeboat, D class inshore lifeboat and kit room over the Fish and Ships Festival weekend. If you don’t have a ticket both the RNLI shop and museum on Pier Road will be open both days and are well worth a visit.

Look out for a special Splash Mob inspired by the folk song Herring’s Head and featuring some community-led herring-themed bunting created by local schools using recycled materials which will be on display around the festival site.