FINISHING touches are being made in preparation for next week's Harwich International Shanty Festival.

Organisers are promising an exciting line-up of singers from Germany, Holland, Belgium, Canada and across the UK as the historic old town celebrates its maritime heritage.

UK artists at the three-day event, which starts on October 11, include Figurehead, Kimber’s Men and Tyburn Road.

As well as traditional music, there will be an array of events, with most being free.

On the Saturday at the Electric Palace cinema, the 58 Ships project continues with Mick Verrier, discovering the story of all the ships built for the Royal Navy between 1660 and 1826.

Other talks include the History of the Electric Palace by Michael Offord and Kindertransport by David Whittle.

Mick and Emily Verrier will also present the work of Cicely Fox-Smith who wrote a huge number of sea-themed poems, many of which have been adapted for singing and have become folk standards.

There is an illustrated talk by Jan Williams, called Bells Across Cardigan Bay, about her grandfather’s ship which sank off Bardsey Island in 1882, with a fascinating background story about the life of a master mariner and his ship.

Rounding the Horn is an illustrated talk by Chris Roche who will share more of his experiences of tall ships 'rounding the Horn', and Oyster Land is a spellbinding documentary of the Oyster Fishing industry around Mersea Island.

Hans Weehuizen is over from the Netherlands to show how to playing the 'bones' - a traditional maritime percussion instrument.

Martin Woodford’s one-man show visits the heroic actions of men and women from the Hull fishing community and how the laws around fishing were changed more in two weeks than in the previous 100 years. Tiles Along the Wall is a musical narration of memorial tiles in Brightlingsea Church commemorating local sailors who lost their lives at sea.