Community flock to Port of Dover Regatta After Two Years of COVID Restrictions

The 2022 Port of Dover Regatta was a fantastic success with an estimated 15,000 people from the local community in attendance throughout the day; a great comeback for the much-loved event. Funds raised throughout the day have also been awarded to the two charity partners, Dover Food Bank and the Dover RNLI. This year’s Regatta raised £6000, so each of the charities will receive a £3000 donation to their cause.

The 2022 Port of Dover Regatta was a fantastic success with an estimated 15,000 people from the local community in attendance throughout the day; a great comeback for the much-loved event. Funds raised throughout the day have also been awarded to the two charity partners,  Dover Food Bank and the Dover RNLI.  This year’s Regatta raised £6000, so each of the charities will receive a £3000 donation to their cause.

The Port of Dover Regatta returned with a bang for 2022, with a massive turnout and £6000 raised for charity. This was also the first Regatta that took place partially on Dover’s new waterfront development, the Marina Curve, which was host to gourmet food outlets, family games and performances from local musicians throughout the day.

The Regatta was also jam-packed with activities and entertainment, including classic fairground amusements, demonstrations by the RNLI and the Port of Dover Tug Boats – not forgetting the dramatic raft race face-off, in which the RNLI prevailed over the Port of Dover team (but there’s always next year!).

Diederik Smet, Manager of Destination Dover, who delivered the event in partnership with the Port, said:

“It was wonderful to bring the community back together for the 2022 Regatta and a true delight to see the scale at which local people turned out. This year’s Regatta felt like a celebration of Dover, our community and being able to gather en masse after two years of cancellations due to COVID restrictions. We can’t wait to see everyone next year!”

Christian Pryce, Chief Commercial Officer at the Port of Dover, said:

“We were thrilled to have so many from the community come down for this year’s Regatta and it was great to bring the Port and town together and to see the Seafront and Marina Curve alive with so many people. This is a testament to the hard work of Port staff and colleagues from Destination Dover to produce the event, as well as the ongoing placemaking approach to the waterside re-development and we look forward to hosting more community events here in the future. Raising £6000 throughout the day for the two charity partners has also meant the Regatta will have far-reaching benefits for the local community.”

Upon hearing about the money raised from the Port of Dover Regatta, Dover Food Bank said:

“Dover Food Bank is delighted to hear that £3000 has been raised for our cause through this year’s Regatta. We would like to thank the Port of Dover for supporting us as one of their chosen charities and we are truly grateful for this support during this difficult time for many local families.”

The Dover RNLI added,

“The RNLI lifeboat team here at Dover truly appreciate being recognised for the great work our volunteers do in Saving Lives at Sea by being nominated as one of the Regatta’s charity partners for 2022.

Every penny of this £3000 donation will go towards helping to provide our crews with the very best of safety equipment and clothing to make the valuable work that they do as safe as possible.”

ENDS

A selection of photos from the 2022 Port of Dover Regatta is available to download here until 19/08/22.

Notes to Editors

The Port of Dover is the UK’s busiest international ferry port, handling more lorries than all other UK ports put together through an unrivalled and fluid operation capable of facilitating 120 ferry movements and 110 miles of freight per day. £144bn worth of UK trade and 33% of all trade with the EU is handled by the Port of Dover. 

Dover is also the UK’s second busiest cruise port, has a marina and property business primed to benefit from a new waterfront and a busy cargo business handling fresh produce, containers, project cargo, general cargo and grain operating from a state-of-the-art terminal.

The Port of Dover holds ambitious net zero targets, placing it at the vanguard of decarbonisation within the UK ports industry. More information on these can be read here.