Gullfest 2025: The arts festival celebrating Plymouth’s divisive winged critters has returned!

Baby seagulls are about to start hatching again, and to celebrate these wonderful, noisy new hatchlings, Gullfest is back! Plymouth Culture reporter, Jessica Warby, met with Núria Bonet and Terah Walkup, two members of Gullfest’s ‘Gullective’ of organisers, to discuss this year’s offerings of art for the gulls of Plymouth.

Image: Katty Bray

This year it returns from the 30th May to the 1st June with the same model from the year before, so there are many familiar workshops and performances along with 2025’s new additions of gull tarot, gull printing and gullaoke (gull karaoke). The art installations that have been submitted this year will also line the walls of 37 Looe Street with Gulls. There is real fun in the surprise element of Gullfest, as Terah points out, you can expect gulls, but there is so much creative thought behind how they are presented by the artists.

Artist: Thaïs Lenkiewicz

The arts festival is based on the mysterious tradition of the Gull Wassail. I may not be able to find evidence of this ancient ritual, but as the Gullective pointed out, there is no evidence that it hasn’t existed either.  Wassailing is a well-documented folk tradition usually related to the harvest of apples and warding off of spirits to protect the harvest. These traditions are lost in urban areas, so Plymouth is lucky to have our very own tradition of Gullfest.

Why Seagulls? Terah and Núria discuss their behaviour and what they represent. They can be identifiable to Plymouth as coastal birds. Their anti-authoritarian, anarchic behaviour makes them stand out from other birds as they provoke a reaction when most birds are fairly neutral beings. They have the ability to spark important conversations as we share so much of our lives with them. “We keep finding more people who would have something negative to say, admitting that they actually really love gulls and are glad that Gullfest is doing something to celebrate them.”

Image: Katty Bray

Last year, Gullfest was the subject of national attention with an article in The Daily Star, and as the subject of a quiz question on a Channel 5 morning show. Terah and Núria were delighted and said it was completely unexpected. The nature of “the scandalous sort of silliness” in the tabloids showed the appeal that gulls have.

The team behind this beautifully eccentric festival are all volunteers with creative backgrounds, including music, curation, art, and writing. They pin the beginnings of Gullfest to Sefryn Penrose of 37 Looe Street, a gallery run by her and Angela Piccini that serves as Gullfest’s main activity centre. Sefryn had voiced the idea of hosting a Gull Wassail for the seagulls that hatch on the roof of the gallery. Ultimately, it was in a pub on St. Patrick’s Day that the idea started to become realised. Around ten weeks later and the first Gull Wassail held by 37 Looe Street had begun. Núria points out that “there wasn’t a five-to-ten-year plan, and there wasn’t any funding either,” and they are proud of Gullfest as a DIY grassroots project. Terah observes that there is a sense of Plymouth spirit to a group of people making their idea happen for all to enjoy.

Part of the reason they love doing Gullfest is because they have genuinely become, in the words of Terah, “a little gull family.” They knew each other previously, but hosting Gullfest has pushed them closer. Planning what goes into the exhibition is still a collaborative process with the artists too. The team are very encouraging with all ideas that come forward. This really speaks to the importance of traditions like Gullfest, even more so in urban, often individualistic, environments.

The exhibition welcomes a variety of different, intergenerational visitors with a shared love for gulls. We might complain about seagulls as ‘noisy ice-cream and chip thieves,’ but their cheekiness can easily brighten people’s days and often makes for great anecdotes. Núria identifies that “it spoke to celebrate Gulls, and if it speaks to people, then it is folk and it is a ritual.”  Gullfest makes people consider the world around them. Yes, it is fun and silly, but it also has been used to touch on some more hard-hitting subjects, including climate change, queerness, and ecologically-friendly packaging.

The opening night will be held on Friday, with Workshops on Saturday, and finally, the procession and performances on Sunday. More details will be posted on Gullfest’s socials as the event approaches, and bookable events will be available on Eventbrite. Until then, Plymouth Gull-ture wishes everyone a happy Gullfest! 

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