JOIN Cumbria Wildlife Trust for a full-day celebration of marine wildlife, sustainable seafood and the big ocean blue

Cumbria Wildlife Trust invites you to bring the family and join them at SeaFest, an action-packed festival celebrating sustainable seafood and marine wildlife.

It takes place on St Bees Beach on July 31, from 10.00am to 4.00pm. A highlight will be Beached Art, our popular sand sculpture competition, but this year there’ll be lots of exciting new activities for you to enjoy too.

SeaFest has been created by Lucy Mather, Project Officer for Cumbria Wildlife Trust, she said: “We wanted to celebrate our wonderful Irish Sea, with some long-standing family favourites, like Beached Art – a chance to unleash your creativity by making marine-themed sand sculptures, using just natural materials you find on the beach.

"Don’t forget to book your pitch in advance!

"We’ve got some great new events this year too. We’ll be kicking off with beach yoga or a jog and a dip in the sea and we’ll be offering cooking demonstrations and tasters from a local chef, who will show you how to make delicious dishes using local sustainable seafood.

"Other popular activities will include rockpool rambles, walks on the cliffs to see the beautiful nesting bird colonies, and you can even drop in to our sea watch survey to see if you can spot a porpoise or dolphin. There’ll be more surprises to come, so watch this space!”

SeaFest is free and there’s no need to book in advance – but you do need to pre-book your pitch for Beached Art at https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/events/2021-07-31-sea-fest-west-cumbrias-festival-sea Please note dogs are welcome at SeaFest as long as they’re on leads.

SeaFest is part of National Marine Week, a UK-wide celebration of our seas run by the Wildlife Trusts. Despite the name, National Marine Week actually runs for 16 fun-filled days (24 July to 8 August) to allow for the variation in tide times around the country. Cumbria Wildlife Trust is running a range of sea-related events during these two weeks, including:

• Sea Watch: drop-in dolphin surveys, Whitehaven, Saturday 24 July

• BioBlitz: Rockpooling and drop-in marine wildlife survey, Parton Beach near Whitehaven, Thursday 29 July

• Dune Detectives, South Walney, Tuesday 3 August (booking required)

• Tale Trail: The Secret of the Sea, Thursday 5 August, family activity trail for little beach explorers at St Bees (booking required)

• Sand Dune Nature Trail, Sandscale Hawes National Nature Reserve, Friday, August 6 (booking required).