Forthcoming Events

Whitstable & Herne Bay Lions Club Sponsor the Winner of the Lions Clubs District Music

A chance meeting at a concert in Borken in Germany between members of Whitstable Recorder Ensemble and the      President of W & HB LC lead to superb afternoon of music for the Oboe at Kent College Canterbury on Sunday 16th   January.
The music came from three contestants, Richard Lines-Davies sponsored by Woking Lions Club, Fiona Myall sponsored by Caterham, Oxted and Godstone Lions Club and Hannah Porro sponsored by Whitstable & Herne Bay.
The concert was in two parts all the contestants played a compulsory piece, J.S Bach  Concerto in F followed by a chosen piece from a set of 12.
Richard chose a piece by WA Mozart Allegro Aperto 1st part from Concert for Oboe in C Major
Fiona chose Sonate (1962) by F Poulenc and Hannah chose Concerto 1st part Rondo Pastorale by Vaughan Williams.
These three held everybody spell bound with their professional playing and musical skills. This was reiterated by the Adjudicators in their summing up who had nothing but praise for all three, with only minor comments concerning posture and breathing control. Whitstable’s Hannah took first place with Fiona 2nd and Richard a very brave 3rd. Hannah was outstanding in my humble opinion and let me drift away with the sound of her music.

The next stage will be the MD finals in Birmingham on Saturday 16th April were Hannah competes against 12 other finalist from the various district in UK & Ireland.
The winner of this goes forward to the Lions International European Youth Music Final in Maastricht in Holland representing UK & Ireland against winners from the various European Countries. Last year our MD finalist who also can from this District can 2nd out of seventeen losing by 1 point.

Hannah was educated at St Mary’s Catholic School in Whitstable then at the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury and is at present studying at the Royal Academy
of Music in London. She won also the Kent Junior Instrumentalist in 2009 and the Junior Concerto and the Woodwind Competitions at Trinity College where she attended the    Junior Department. She is currently working as a freelance performer as well as teaching music to primary school children under the UK Opportunities Scheme.
Hannah orchestral achievements include playing in the Royal Academy’s Baroque Orchestra, the Trinity College Symphony and the Kent Youth Orchestra’s.

The History Of Whitstable's May Day

The Whitstable May Day celebrations grew out of the folk club at the Duke of Cumberland.  I attended a London folk festival with ‘Fiddlers Dram’, a folk group who later found fame with “Day Trip to Bangor”.  We decided that we could run a better festival in Whitstable.

In 1975 the Council moved to Canterbury and out of the Castle on Tower Hill.  This was the perfect venue and our first May Day Celebration was 1 May 1976.  The following year the event was held on the Sunday, 1 May.  In 1978 the Government created the first May Day Bank Holiday and the first Monday of the month became a public holiday.  The May Day celebrations have been held on that Bank Holiday ever since.  Local charities were invited to have stalls to cover expenses and the cost of entertainment on the Castle lawn.

Town historian Wallace Harvey told us of a tradition where a ‘Jack in the Green’ was paraded through the town with Robin Hood and Maid Marion and we decided to revive this tradition.  We even composed our own May Day song which was played and sung along the route and at the Castle.  Later the Oyster Morris was formed at the Duke of Cumberland and has been part of the celebrations ever since. 

In those early years the Castle Centre Association Committee helped with the organisation but as the celebrations grew it became too much for a small group and Herne Bay & Whitstable Lions agreed to help out.  This led to my being invited to become the first woman member of the Lions Club.  Now Oyster Morris and Whitstable Lions have been working together for over 30 years to welcome the start of summer in Whitstable with tradition and fun. 

Dixie Lee

This year's May Day celebration will be on the 7th May at Whitstable Castle

Contact Lion Terry Parr - 01227 371912 or email

Whitstable Regatta

The first Whitstable Regatta was held on 7 August 1792 and has been held almost every year since then.  In 1912 the Whitstable Yacht Club took over the running of the Town Regatta as it was known and even in those early days there was an "aeroplane display".  Extra trains were laid on from Canterbury with cheap fares.

The Regatta was a real sailing spectacle with schooners, brigantines, barques, oyster dredgers and yachts of every size taking part.  Events were controlled from a Committee Boat where refreshments were provided, although this sometimes caused problems.  In 1920 the Committee resolved that "under no circumstances would ladies be admitted to the Committee Boat" and a separate boat was provided!  Scouts helped by sending semaphore signals between the shore and the Committee Boat.

In 1913 a highlight was the blowing up of a wreck by the Whitstable Salvage Company.  In 1914 a rival West End regatta was proposed for West Beach but neither event took place because of the outbreak of war.  The Regatta was revived in 1919 and was described as "by far and away the best and showiest of all the regattas on the Kent coast".

The Yacht Club continued to organise the Regatta for a number of years but in 1952 it was run by the Whitstable Sea Cadet Corps, when record crowds saw more than 100 yachts taking part.

Greasy pole walking from a diving raft was always part of Regatta and in pre-war days another popular event was the "bombing" by a plane with bags of flour.  There were also the 'millers and sweeps', where the occupants of two small boats fought each other with soot and flour!

Music has always been part of the entertainment and bands used to perform from the bandstand which has long since disappeared.
In more recent years the Regatta was run by Whitstable Town Council until this was merged with Canterbury, at which point the Chamber of Commerce took it on.  In the late 1970s it was handed over to the Lions, who have run it ever since.  At that time it was a one day event held on a Sunday.  The Lions first introduced the idea of a firework display on the Saturday night and then extended the event to two days.  For the last few years the display has been set on a boat moored off the Regatta site, providing a spectacular display visible for miles around.

The Lions Whitstable Regatta will be held on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th August 2012

For more information contact Regatta Chairman Mike Shaw email here