Morecambe to host Bay DrumFest with samba parade and steel bands

A free drumming festival will roll onto Morecambe Promenade on September 26 as Samba Espirito marks its 10th anniversary with a day built around live percussion, parade energy and a full afternoon trail. Backed by a £1,000 grant from Morecambe Town Council, Bay DrumFest will bring 11 bands into the town and turn the seafront into a regional meeting point for samba players, steel pannists and dance groups.

The first performance is set for outside the Stone Jetty Cafe at 1pm, with the drum trail continuing along the Promenade before an evening parade begins at the RNLI building at 6.50pm. The line-up will pull in bands from Halton, Morecambe, Chorley, Milnthorpe, Oldham, Penrith, Barrow, Lancaster, Bentham and Kirklees, giving the event a spread that reaches deep across North West England. Samba rhythms, Afro-Brazilian beats and steel band melodies will sit alongside stilt walkers and dance troupes.

Samba Espirito, based near Lancaster, has more than 70 members and has spent the past decade building a local base around carnival music. The group says it exists to give local people the chance to experience the energy of playing carnival music and to learn how to perform it for others. Karen Dickinson, one of the band directors, said the festival will celebrate community, creativity and wellbeing through music and movement, and that drumming brings people together and gives people of all ages a chance to be part of something joyful.

Councillor Lee Bradbury, chair of Morecambe Town Council’s Festivals, Sponsorships and Events Committee, said the council is pleased to help Samba Espirito take centre stage as it marks ten years of community music-making. The event also has support listed from Morecambe BID, Lingwood Security Management, The King’s Arms, The Midland Hotel and the 3R Foundation and Charity Shop, adding to the town’s already familiar calendar of crowd-pulling spectacles.

Morecambe already knows how to handle a parade line. Samba Espirito has become a regular sight at Armed Forces Day, Baylight and the Coronation Carnival, and Bay DrumFest will arrive in a town that is also set to host Morecambe Music Festival from July 9 to 12, after organisers said the 2025 edition was the busiest yet. By the time the RNLI building sends the evening parade back down the Promenade, Morecambe will have another seafront rhythm to call its own.