Cornish Sardine Festival 2026 in pictures - Day 1.

 

Sun, cloud, drizzle, sun, cloud, drizzle, sun and the odd gust of warm westerly wind - nothing did dampen the spirit of the festival and all those who enjoyed thousands of Cornish sardines straight from the grill - and much more besides!

Flying the flag for sardines!

 

Mid-week and it' all smiles aboard the Jasmine Rose...

bringing in a good haul of crawfish - despite the presence of huge numbers of octopus for the last four months it sees these wily shellfish have been keeping their heads down to avid being eaten...

a little bit of re-cycling goes a long way. to help keep the harbour full of water...

in the run-up to the Sardine Festival this weekend, festival flags have appeared all over the village...

straight to tyhe point...

the Old Harbour too has joined in with it's own signage courtesy of Suzy at Muddy Creek signs, very much in the traditional style of harbour notice boards of yore carrying the famous epithet, "By Order of the Harbour Master" as per the wishes of Historic England who providied the bulk of the fnancial support for the project to bring the Old Quay back into working use

Penlee Lifeboat always draws a crown when out and about...

boats at rest, as yet, the sardine fleet are yet to find good marks of fish this week ahead of the festival...

though, as if by magic, there's plenty of other fish on show at Trelawney Fish 

everyone is looking forward to festival fun ...

as Tom watches over the harbour...

and a fresh pile of seaweed ripped from the rocks by the latest strong winds to rip through overnight...

heading into the early hours and the sardine boats have returned with fish to land...

which makes for happy skippers like Tom Lambourn from the Lyonesse, seen here being given the nod of approval from Argoe's Richard who can now breath a sigh of relief that there will be plenty of fish for the festival grills over the coming weekend...

also breathing a sigh of relief were the Ch4 camera crew who had come to record the boats in action for a forthcoming documentary on this increasingly popular fish which has taken social media platforms like Tik-Tok by storm with the hashtag #sardinemaxxing! ...

some more happy than others to finally get ashore!

Plenty of fish for Newlyn on Monday's market!

The skies tell s the weather is on the change as clouds darken early doors...

but it is bright enough on Monday's market with a big landing from one of the Dutch fly-shooters...

though the Stelissa found her nets full of dogs again...

to go with her hake...

it was bass...

bass...

and more bass for the big fly-shooter...

handliners and inhore boats are being blessed with mackerel at the moment...

and the odd sea urchin...

while numbers of these guys...

and these grow...

despite the presence of these guys, now thankfully decreasing in numbers caught...

just the one big blue over the weekend...

and proving hard to catch at the moment, sardines; let's hope things change by the end of the week as we head towards this year's Sardine Festival...

a good mix of fish...

with just the one beam trawl trip...

young Roger was back in his happy place catching Dory by the box...

while the beam trawler came good with the megrim soles...

all the gear about to go back aboard the Joy of Ladram which appears to have shrunk during her time away!

 

Quiet FishyFriday in Newlyn? 500 boxes of cuttles!

Not a breath to disturb the waters of the harbour this morning..

with a relatively quiet auction mostly filled with day boat fish...

like these cracking John Dory from the FH registered Siobhan...

and big tubs from the only beam trawler to land, the Billy Rowney,,,

the weather neccessitates there is plenty of ice on the fish...

so it's not always possible to see what is in each box...

until one of given a good shake...

these Dovers just manage to peak out from beneath the ice...

lobster landing buried in seaweed to keep them alive...

a brace of bass...

and a few hake from the netter Ygraine...

which also landed this stone bass...

there's a few tons of cuttles from one of the marauding big Dutch fly-shooters...

mackerel are still very patchy

but so are sardines which will be giving the sardine boats and festival team sleepless nights...

a nice combo for the BBQ...

young Mr Smart looking for his fish...

hopefully someone will trim the out-of-control weeds growing along the Newlyn Green wall so as not to obscure the festival signage!..

which will feature a chance for visitors to join Stevie McCrindle form the Sea moor shop in the ancient art of Gyotaku - printing directly from the skin of individual fish - this time with a twist as you will be able to take your chosen fish home or get them cooked on the BBQ!