While the final fishing boats at Porthleven were being lifted back into the water last month, the StormSongs project delivered its sea shanty, which had been inspired by stories of last year's storms.

Before the concert, onlookers congregated around the harbour to watch the fishing boats, which have been in dry dock to protect them from the winter storms, be lifted back into the water.

As well as the sea shanty that was written by the creative collaboration of Dutch company, 5e Kwartier, and Encounters Arts, other songs that are well known to the Porthleven community were also sung.

StormSongs organiser, Natalia Eernstman, said: “It was a great ensemble. People really loved it. We had some great feedback from the audience. It was just wonderful to have all these people singing together. When they all gathered, just before the performance, and we did lower lights by the church everyone was quite impressed and moved by the sound that we produced.”

The project was funded by Feast Cornwall and the Tandem Exchange Program. Porthleven Neighbourhood Plan steering group, and the University of Exeter were also involved.

Councillor Alan Jorgensen said: “It was a fantastic event. I really enjoyed it. Our plan at the moment is to take the song around, that's still in the early days of planning. It was great to have involvement in this and it is interesting to see what come from it.”

There are plans to carry out a larger performance in the autumn and anyone with an interest in singing or theatre has been invited to join in.

When asked what inspired her to start StormSongs, Natalia said: “The force of the storms inspired me to think about it and then I think there is a need for us as a society and as Cornish coastal communities to think about this topic if this is going to be something that is going to return in the future - if there is going to be more extreme weather in the future then how do we respond as coastal communities?”

Christine Hosey's captions.

1: Bill Tearney, Paula Johns and Richard Wall were in charge of the Porthleven Development Plan paper boats 2 & 3: The fishing boats were lifted into the harbour 4 & 5: The Storm Song singers entertained on the harbour head 6: There was music in the streets