Plans for this summer's Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival are now well advanced and as the Packet is again the official media partner of the event, we will be counting down the weeks by shining a light on a couple of the acts appearing each week.

We start this off by focusing on Bounding Main from the USA, who will be making their first appearance at the festival and will also be performing at the Gala Concert being held at the Princess Pavilion on June 17 - tickets for which are available now via the festival website.

Bounding Main is a vocal group that sings "richly harmonic" versions of traditional maritime songs. Their shows are filled with "spirit, humour and harmony" and their arrangements of traditional nautical music bring the listener into the world of fellowship, adventure and romance. The group has performed all over North America and Europe in the 14 years that they’ve been performing together.

Posting on their own website, they said: "We are honoured and honestly a bit gobsmacked to share the news that we have been invited to perform at the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival. This will be our first appearance in England and we are beyond excited to start making plans to share our special brand of shanties with the folks in the cracking coastal community of Falmouth."

The second group to come under the spotlight this week is Devon’s “original buoy band” The Exmouth Shanty Men. Formed in 2007 to breathe new life into the rich maritime heritage of their home port, they have since ventured further afield, bedecked in the garb of early 19th century merchantmen.

The Exmouth buoys are increasingly in demand at home and abroad and have played the main stage at such folk music festivals as Sidmouth, Warwick, Banbury and Wadebridge, as well as many a village hall.

The Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival will take place at various venues across the town between June 16 and 18. All performances, apart from the Gala Concert, are free with all money raised going to Falmouth RNLI's boathouse appeal. For more details go to falmouthseashanty.co.uk.