{"id":601194,"date":"2026-05-24T09:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T09:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:35:18","slug":"jack-sparrow-drops-in-at-swanage-pirate-festivals-10th-birthday-bash-swanage-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601194\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Sparrow drops in at Swanage Pirate Festival\u2019s 10th birthday bash \u2013 Swanage News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swanage Pirate Festival has celebrated its 10th anniversary in perfect Caribbean weather \u2013 and even welcomed a special guest star in Captain Jack Sparrow.<\/p>\n

The event began under clear blue skies on Saturday 23rd May 2026 with a pirate parade down Shore Road, and a beach battle in which Captain Jack was captured by the King\u2019s militia men, before the pirates set up camp on Sandpit Field.<\/p>\n

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There were pirates aplenty visiting the Swanage festival on Saturday 23rd May<\/p>\n

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The day began with a pirate parade down Shore Road and a battle on the beach<\/p>\n

Buccaneer booty and nautical costume<\/p>\n

The two-day festival continues on Sunday 24th May 2026 from 10 am with a full day of events starting with pirate training and another beach battle, before a sea shanty concert and a display of cannon fired by Wimborne Militia.<\/p>\n

Guests entered into the spirit of the festival by dressing up as pirates, and with plenty of craft tents selling buccaneer booty and nautical costume, it was easy to join in with the fun.<\/p>\n

But the popular festival nearly folded in 2024 after long time organisers Dawn and Colin Honey had to step down as organisers, only being saved when Louise Hodgson and Jeremy Wren stepped into the breach just weeks before the 2025 event.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that they\u2019re based 190 miles from the Dorset coast in Birmingham, the couple ran a shipshape event, and now in their second year, the festival is growing in size and popularity again.<\/p>\n

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Cookery demonstrations involved some primitive methods<\/p>\n

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Replica artefacts demonstrated what life was like in pirating times \u2013 this is a portable handwash<\/p>\n

The golden age of pirating<\/p>\n

Louise Hodgson said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a few more stalls this year because we have had more time to organise it, and we are really happy with the way it looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwanage Pirate Festival is not only great fun, we have tried to make it educational as well, a community, family event with living history and displays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can show people what life was like in the golden age of pirating when Blackbeard lived on the docks at Bristol, and we\u2019ve invited the Wimborne militia men along as well, who will be firing their cannon in a standoff with the pirates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to the festival for years ahead \u2013 the only question mark currently over future years is what will happen to Sandpit Field events once work starts to stabilise the seafront, but we\u2019ll cross that bridge when we get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Louise Hodgson is committed to running the pirate festival for the foreseeable future<\/p>\n

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Both days of the festival begin with a pirate parade down Shore Road<\/p>\n

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Historical costumes were on display everywhere<\/p>\n

\u201cSwanage is such a popular resort\u201d<\/p>\n

Louise added:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather has been absolutely perfect for the opening day of our festival, and Sunday looks just as nice \u2013 the only problem is that the heat is a little too much if you are wearing full costume, I\u2019m not sure how the militia manage!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite blustery last year, which gave us a few worries about firing cannon, but the warm weather this year has brought everyone up to the field, which means the traders are happy and are therefore more likely to come again and again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have tried to rotate the food stalls so there are new food traders from last year, giving people variety, and we have had a lot of enthusiasm from traders wanting to take part.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong the traders we have the Purple Faeries from Essex and Ceolred Monger from York \u2013 Swanage is such a popular resort and there are no end of pirates who want to come down and spend a weekend here!\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Wimborne Militia were sworn to keep the King\u2019s peace in Swanage \u2013 no easy task with so many pirates around<\/p>\n

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The militia were obliged to open fire on Swanage\u2019s pirates, several times<\/p>\n

\u201cCould we organise better weather?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Wren said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is all self funded and all the re-enactors give their time for free \u2013 we have a great lineup, including Wimborne Militia, Greyhounds, River Rogues, and the Privateers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in the pirate community for more than 10 years with the Brixton pirate festival and similar events and we took part in the Swanage festival for six years before we volunteered our services to run it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, one of our reenactors came to us at the end and said they had really enjoyed the event, but could we organise better weather for 2026! We didn\u2019t think we could promise that \u2013 but just look at what we have managed!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Swanage Town Band held a concert of nautical themed tunes at the bandstand<\/p>\n

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A perfect day to enjoy open air music from Swanage\u2019s beautiful bandstand<\/p>\n

A chorus of cannon fire<\/p>\n

Swanage Town Band joined in the fun with a pirate themed concert at Swanage Bandstand, with a full programme of maritime music.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people sat down to listen to the concert, several enjoying picnics in the sun as well as the music.<\/p>\n

Town band conductor John Watkins said he was delighted to hold their first bandstand concert of the year \u2013 even if it was a little challenging to play at the same time as a chorus of cannon fire from the neighbouring Sandpit Field!<\/p>\n

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Swanage is full of pirates across the festival weekend<\/p>\n

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The Purple Faeries came all the way from Essex to open their stall of pirate plunder<\/p>\n

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Time flies when you\u2019re having rum\u2026<\/p>\n

Further information <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swanage Pirate Festival has celebrated its 10th anniversary in perfect Caribbean weather \u2013 and even welcomed a special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}