Festival Time!

As in previous years, the Brest festival was full-on. The site itself is massive, spanning a mile or more of waterfront, and all along the quaysides of five different basins. There were stalls all the way along, selling food, beer, and nautical goods. Groups performed music on the four big stages around the site, and smaller bands played on the streets, or even on the water!

'Airplane band!'

Street band

There were boats galore - huge square-riggers, large sail-training ships, racing catamarans, smaller yachts, right down to little sailing dinghies. The boats were all completely different but all had been lovingly built, restored or repaired by their owners.

Spanish galleon

Colourful sail

One of my favourites was the ‘Serenading Dutchman’, who motored all around the docks in his flower-clad boat spreading goodwill with his organ-grinding tunes and French horn! We gave him a plastic flower to add to his collection.

Serenading Dutchman!

We were berthed in ‘English village’, right by the main stage, surrounded by other British sailboats, some private, many used for charter. The boat inside us was a large trawler called ‘Marie’, and crewed by a four-man band called ‘Aartwork’, who performed on the foredeck each day at one o’clock. A free concert for us, and they were brilliant, we had never heard anybody play the recorder so fast!

Ros Ailither at Brest

We were third out in a row of six or seven boats. There were two more rows of bigger boats (including Brixham trawlers) in front of us, and a row of five slightly smaller ones in the corner behind us. When they decided they wanted to go out sailing, it was quite a manoeuvre to get out past us all! In fact, Olaf’s horn was a casualty of one of these manoeuvres, but Dave soon had it glued back on!

Katie and Meadow's shell stall

I learnt an interesting fact at a pen-knife stall  - the little trefoils on the Breton flag are called an ‘hermine’ – named after the animal ‘ermine’, which used to run wild in Brittany, and is similar to a stoat or weasel. There you go!

Bags made with the Breton flag

A boat called 'Hermine'

There are various ‘Villages’ around the site – this year there was Brittany, Russia, Portugal, Holland, Melanesia and Polynesia, as well as England. Each ‘village’ put on displays of goods from their country, as well as the boats and music.

English Village had a stand of traditional boatmaking skills - from Portsmouth Boatbuilding School, where Reuben and Sol made a length of rope on an old-fashioned rope-winding machine. For 'school', we turned our hands to ropework and made 'monkey's fists' and 'turks heads'. Here's a large monkey's fist that Reuben improvised later.

Reuben with his 'monkey's fist'

Winding the rope-maker

The people from Melanesia and Polynesia put on a great show together, all dressed in their traditional costumes. The chiefs from each country first honoured each other then they performed what looked like a male wardance, followed by a more peaceful female hula-dancing. I loved the colourful costumes, complete with grass skirts and feathers. The image was slightly ruined by the native women filming proceedings on i-phones!

Polynesian dancers

Wandering around, you passed boatbuilding workshops, science exhibitions, childrens’ (free) playspaces, and various other things to attract your attention. It was impossible to see the whole site in one day.

Model boats sailing

'Metal man'

To give you an idea of the sheer scale of the festival, I found these figures on the Brest website: There were 1,050 boats,  9,000 sailors, 3,000 volunteers, 1,500 musicians, and they welcomed an incredible 712,000 visitors over the five days!

Kids climbing on anchor

 Unique Boat Plaque

Throughout the day, boats paraded inside the harbour and out in the bay, and each evening, there was a floodlit ‘parade of sail’ through the harbour, accompanied by music through the loudspeakers. There were two fireworks displays – one on Bastille Day, and one on the last evening.

















A shockwave rippled through the site on hearing the news of the Bastille Day attack in Nice, and a minute’s silence was held the following day. It was quite sobering to hear the constant noise level drop to nothing for sixty seconds.

The heatwave began to get to us on day four. It was too hot (and busy) to wander far, so we stayed on board under the suncover. The children filled a big bucket with water and splashed on deck. Before long, we having a full-on water fight! The neighbours, who had stopped off for a quick drink, ended up getting caught in the crossfire, but took it all in good humour!

Water fight!

The following day was even hotter, so we decided to head out across the bay. We anchored off a sandy beach and no sooner was the anchor down than we were all in the water – chilly but deliciously refreshing!

Brest Festival finishes with a ‘Grand Parade’ of boats all heading the twenty miles south to Douarnenez. There are several headlands to pass, where crowds congregate to watch the spectacle, and one notorious narrow pass through the rocks. The day started out hot and windless but the wind piped up and we ended up having a great sail. So breezy in fact, that at least one boat's jib blew out and somebody's mast got broken.

Parade of sail

Cooling down at sea

Douarnenez was an altogether smaller festival, much more manageable in size! The quayside had been transformed into 'times gone by', with crates and barrels stacked up, and a working forge in the corner. Sword-fighting took place on the quay and sea shanties were sung while pushing the capstan round.

Working forge

Old-fashioned tools

Sword-fighting on the quay

We were pleased to be anchored off – away from the worst of the noise at night and able to swim around the boat. We took the dinghy around the coast and found a couple of secluded little beaches to explore.

Secluded beach ashore

Reuben practising his knots!

We had a perfect spot for watching the daytime sailing fun, which came in close to show off to the crowds of people on the breakwater.

Sailing action

Sail made from a Celtic flag

We joined in the working boat race, along with friends from former British lifeboat ‘Oniros’.  We were pleased with ourselves for completing two laps of the course, even if we didn’t get the finishing ‘toot’ from the committee boat. We then enjoyed lunch on board while sailing across the bay, and Reuben was brave enough to join Katie on the boom, under sail!

Katie and Reuben on boom

Mike and Julia from 'Oniros'

Katie and Reuben on boom 

Every evening, free wine, beer, bread and pate was laid on ashore for all the boat crews. This was a good place to meet up with other crews, and swap salty sea stories.

Beer o'clock at crews quarters

Inevitably, we got sucked in by the music on the nearby stage, and ended up staying to eat ashore – the tent next door seemed to have an endless supply of delicious ‘moules-frites’ and ‘saucisson-frites’.

Moules-frites and saucisson

The last sea battle has been re-enacted, the last fireworks have been fired, and all the boats have dispersed. We have had a fantastic time, but are now setting our sights back on British shores. We aim to sail across the Channel to Falmouth this week. Au revoir!