Half a dozen like-minded individuals, who are forming the charity, are hosting a vision launch event at the Crown Pier tomorrow at 5pm. They hope to welcome anyone with a passion or connection to the sea to join in and celebrate the island’s living heritage.
Co-founder and organiser Marcel Lenormand has been striving to save key nuggets of information, stories and features of the past for some time. His efforts earned him a place on the prestigious Churchill Fellowship two years ago.
‘Guernsey has the most amazing maritime heritage,’ he said.
‘But where is it? Probably the most visible thing that you could point out would be our harbours, yet we park on them and go into town. We used to build ships here – three-masted, tall ships that sailed around the world. Who even knows that? When you scratch the surface, hear stories and begin to uncover stuff, you go: “that’s amazing, we all need to know this”.’
Mr Lenormand said the free, ticketed event on Saturday evening hopes to be the catalyst of Fete d’la Mair’s long voyage ahead. The crew will anchor at Crown Pier throughout the weekend, with games and fun activities planned for Seafront Sunday on 7 June.
‘This is the start of something,’ he said.
‘It’s not just about a festival. It’s much bigger than that – lots of plans, dreams and schemes. But this is where it starts. We want to engage with everybody – fishermen, biologists, sea swimmers, boaty people – everyone. There’s lots of people already doing amazing things in, on and around the sea and a massive part of the festival is to celebrate that, amplify it and share it by bringing them all to one place. We’re an island, and if we don’t maximise our use and enjoyment and facilitate the scene – we’re fools.’
n Tickets for the vision launch can be booked at www.fetedlamair.com
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