Join us at St Bees beach for SeaFest

Join us at St Bees beach for SeaFest

Free family fun at this exploration of our coastal and sea wildlife
Two children in front of a large sand sculpture of a crab on the beach.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust

You’re invited to SeaFest, Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s annual festivities at St Bees beach on Saturday 2 August, from 10.00am to 4.00pm

As ever, it will be an action-packed family-friendly festival, celebrating sustainable seafood and marine wildlife.  Don’t miss our ever-popular sand sculpture competition which takes place from 10.00am to 12.30pm, to coincide with low tide. 

Tickets for the sand sculpture competition should be booked in advance on our website. For updates, visit the Facebook page for SeaFest at Seafest| Facebook.

There are great prizes for the sand sculpture competition, thanks to The Beacon Museum, Coniston Launch, Florence Paintmakers, Keswick Launch Co and Lake District Coast Aquarium.

There’ll also be guided rockpooling and beach games, from 10.00am to 12.00pm. Other activities will take place throughout the day, including:

  • Sustainable seafood tasters
  • Live rockpool creatures from Maryport Aquarium
  • Sea shanties
  • Watersports tasters
  • Creating a marine litter mosaic
  • Making sea glass necklaces
  • Fossil sandpit
  • Beach clean
  • Scavenger hunt
  • Sand art by the fantastic beach artist Simon Wheatley
  • Performances by the La'al Arts Collective

SeaFest is a free drop-in event, so you can turn up any time without booking. However, if you’d like to receive a reminder of this festival a few days in advance, please book tickets in advance at SeaFest: a part of Irish Sea Day | Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

SeaFest organiser Yolanda Aze, Community Engagement Officer with Cumbria Wildlife Trust said:

“Come and join us for a whole range of beach and sea-themed activities. Whether you want to express your creative side with a sand sculpture or discover more about the secretive world of underwater critters found in our rockpools, there’s something for everyone!

“The Irish Sea is very special – some may think of it as brown and lifeless, but it’s far from that! Come along and be amazed at the variety of wildlife found on our Cumbrian coast. Did you know that hidden amongst our muddy seabeds are the longest-lived animals we know of: ocean quahogs? They’re round marine molluscs, so old that some of them were alive at the time of Henry VIII! 

“Here in Cumbria, we also have seagrasses, the only flowering plants able to live and pollinate under seawater, which are also fantastic carbon sinks. Not to mention the charismatic large sea animals that pass our way, including dolphins and turtles.

“There’s so much to celebrate about our Irish Sea – and lots of fun to be had at SeaFest on Saturday 2 August. We look forward to seeing you there!” 

SeaFest is one of many sea-themed events taking place during National Marine Weeks (26 July to 10 August). During Marine Weeks, Wildlife Trusts around the UK will highlight our beautiful, fragile underwater world and encourage support for our threatened seabeds.

Find out more about SeaFest and book your sand sculpture pitch here

SeaFest is part of Irish Sea Day, a celebration of the wildlife and communities that live and work in and around the Irish Sea, from Wales and Scotland to the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.