I am a member of "The Hardtackers" shanty group from Columbus, OH. (Thanks for the compiment, CupOfTea). We are the official shanty team for the "Santa Maria" docked in downtown Columbus. Our gig-getting guru tried repeatedly several months ago to offer our services, even on a volunteer basis, to the Cleveland Tall Ships event. He got no response from the event organizers until a few weeks before the festival when an earnest, but ill-informed young lady called to say she would tell her superiors about our calls and wanted to know just what a shanty was. We heard no more from them, but the interactions we had did not instill in us much confidence in the event.