Making their fourth appearance at the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival next month will be members of Acapella Moonshine, who all live in and around the town, but hail from around the world.

Although a number of the women have sung at the festival before, this year will see the group's debut as Acapella Moonshine. They describe themselves as a "diverse" group of women who work in various trades and caring professions throughout south and west Cornwall. "What brings us together is our love of singing, sailing and the odd tipple or two," they say.

"Our origins range from Barbados to South Africa, Italy to Wales and, of course, Cornwall – so we are a pretty eclectic bunch, joined on occasion by friends from America, Sussex and the North of England. Some of us have been singing together for several years - a varied repertoire which encompasses world music, folk, blues, gospel and, of course shanties and songs of the sea .

"Most of us have sung at the Falmouth Sea Shanty Festival for the past three years – this year we come as a different line-up and a new name, Acapella Moonshine - a name to represent the highly motivated, enthusiastically happy rebel existing inside each of us."

The Wareham Whalers have been together for much longer than the ladies - almost 14 years in fact - and have become Dorset’s premiere shanty crew. They run a popular monthly folk night and host a regular shanty gig in their namesake and historic town of Wareham but they sing at shindigs and festivals through-out the year.

They are currently the proud holders of the title of Dorset’s Volunteer Group of the Year (2015), after raising thousands of pounds for Wareham and Purbeck Multiple Sclerosis Society.

They have over 100 shanties and songs of the sea in their repertoire and admit they remember the words to "most of them."

The shanty festival will see 61 groups from around the world descend on Falmouth to entertain thousands of people in 23 venues across the town. All the money raised during the three days will be donated to the Falmouth RNLI's £100,000 fundraising appeal. For full details of the festival go to falmouthseashanty.co.uk.