Laura Campbell has become the new chair of the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, which will take place next year from Saturday, August 21 to Saturday, August 28 2027.

Her task is to respect the tradition of the event while introducing new attractions and bringing back some familiar favourites.

Laura moved to Dartmouth around 10 years ago and, drawing on her tourism background, joined the Dartmouth Mayflower 400 project.

However, the Covid pandemic intervened, Laura said: “In 2020, we had organised a reinvention of the river parade and that year it didn't happen. We went to the Regatta team to ask them to help as our Mayflower events and organisation was wrapping up but we still wanted to hold the River parade. Ours was an evolution of the classic river parade which hadn't been run for a few years. but for the Mayflower we wanted to make it all-inclusive - they agreed that we could run it as part of their Regatta in 2021."

Laura subsequently joined the regatta team, taking on responsibility for marketing and the website, as well as organising the river parades.

After building a team and spending around five years involved with the event, she decided to step back. However, as the year progressed and more help was needed, she returned to the committee.

Laura said the team was now preparing for the next Regatta, with September marking the end of the previous year's work and October the start of preparations for the following event.

Laura has a team of officers: Amelia Wright, Jim Cocker and Karl Stone, operating as the core committee, but they still have all of their existing committee members, so everything is business as usual according to Laura.

"We've got a lot of the same things happening: the old favourites including the Kontiki, and core to our week, all the traditional rowing ; WEARA, Coastal & Seine rowing, the gigs, still all goes on," she added.

While the committee is keen to preserve the Regatta's traditions, it is also looking at ways to refresh the programme and bring back events that have proved popular in the past.

Laura said: "We hope to bring back the silent discos. We had a year off from those this year, but they will be back"

She said planning was still at an early stage, with the team reviewing last year's programme, considering which acts and attractions could be booked and exploring new ideas.

Laura said that the committee had received positive feedback from local businesses, including Dartmouth Yacht Club and Dudley's Cafe on some of their best days during Regatta, while the Spot the Oddity competition attracted a record 134 entries.

Laura said: "We're building on all the previous good things that we've done over the last few years that have really supported and worked with the local businesses.

The statistics for this year's footfall are not yet out, but we should get those soon."

The Regatta is also looking for additional committee members. Anyone interested in getting involved can email [email protected].