This year’s festival is on the Saturday the 7th September 2024, full details of bands and will be available shortly, stall applications will be accepted using the link in the menu, and it’s also available on our Facebook pages. To fill the online form in, you must be logged in to your Google account or create one, and then log in and use the link provided in the menu on the left
Free Talk – 11th May 2024
John Rees, Against the War campaigner and activist.
‘The Fiery Spirits’ is his new book on the English Revolution, where he talks about the Wigan MP Alexander Rigby, the town’s famous revolutionary of the time.
Full details and tickets available from the link below…
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wigan-diggers-and-for-the-many-network
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Wigan Diggers are looking for interested individuals, groups, and organisations to help us to develop a community garden in the spirit of Gerrard Winstanley, and to provide an area of our town that is a common treasury for all!
The Diggers have been granted the use of an area of land next to Sunshine House in Scholes, which is approximately 150 feet long by 25 feet wide, and is currently being cleared in order to allow its use as a community garden. Additionally, we have been gifted a small, but not inconsiderable amount of money to kick-start the project.
The plan is to establish a garden that allows young people to engage in gardening with a purpose, and for the common benefit.
The area provided does offer the opportunity to devote some area to growing produce, to grow decorative plants, and possibly an area for rest and contemplation. However, at this stage, we have no firm plans, and therefore we are inviting anyone with an interest in promoting collective gardening among young people, to join us at a meeting at Sunshine House on Sunday April 7th at 1.30, with the meeting scheduled to last until 4pm. There will be a break for coffee and tea. Anyone with the wish to get involved and with ideas as to how they can contribute, or ideas as to how the project can develop will be made welcome, and their input welcomed and valued.
We hope to see YOU there (or a member of your organisation) – either just come along – or email WiganDiggers@gmail.com with the names of potential attendees and any ideas that you would like to put forward.
Please note that at this stage, we are looking for voluntary help.
Thank you,
Wigan Diggers Committee.
Sunshine House is located on Wellington Street (off Vauxhall Road) in Scholes, WN1 3SA, just outside the Town Centre. There is ample free parking next to Sunshine House or on the road outside.
Andrew Josef Feinstein (born 16 March 1964) is a South African former politician, activist, filmmaker and author. After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, Feinstein was a member of parliament from 1994 to 2001 as a member of the ruling ANC party. In 2001, as a sign of protest against the ANC’s refusal to investigate a £5 billion arms deal that was accused of large-scale corruption, he resigned from his seat and moved to London, where he works as a political scientist, author and filmmaker. He is chairman of the AIDS charity Friends of Treatment Action Campaign and executive director of Corruption Watch UK. Special guest Pauline Blackburn, amazing singer-songwriter, who will be providing the entertainment on the day.
Free tickets available from link below, donations accepted on the day towards our costs, please give what you can afford.
Fundraising Appeal for Wigan Diggers Festival, please donate if you can…
Wigan Diggers’ Festival is run and organised by a small group of volunteers, and is a totally free event, no one involved in creating the festival, receives any financial gain or payment of any kind. Any money taken by the bar, merch stall or donations on the day, go directly into putting on next year’s festival.
Due to a few complications over the last few years, the festival itself, lost some of its income, which has hit our funding negatively. Also, as the festival itself is growing and becoming more popular, we have to adhere to certain rules and regulations, and this is costing us more money, to put the event on.
In 2022 the festival was cancelled at the last minute, due to the council wanting to use Believe Square to read the proclamation of the queen’s death. At the time, quite a few people and organisations, offered to make a donation to help us with our losses, we didn’t accept these or ask for any donations ourselves, as we know times are hard for everyone, and we were able to put this year’s festival on without any help.
Unfortunately, costs are rising all the time, and it’s getting harder for us to fund the festival, just from our income from the bar, and merch stall.
We have decided to put out an appeal, to try and raise some funds, to help us fund next year’s festival, if you or your organisation would like to support the festival itself, by making a donation, no matter how small, the Wigan Diggers’ Festival committee, would greatly appreciate any help you can give us, and all funds raised will help us continue to run our annual free festival.
Please donate by bank transfer or cheque, details below,
Bank Transfer:
Wigan Diggers Festival
Sort Code: 770213
Account Number: 27530168
Cheques made payable to,
Wigan Diggers Festival
133 Haigh Road
Aspull
Wigan.
WN2 1RP
UPDATE
If you would like a thank-you letter, or acknowledgement of your donation, don’t forget to include your name and address with your donation, so we can send one out to you, and a big thank you, goes out to those people who have tried to help us put next year’s festival on so far.
Please share far and wide,
Wigan Diggers’ are pleased to announce this year’s festival line-up. Sadly ‘The Wakes’ have had to pull out as headliner’s, due to a previous commitment to another event, regrettably this can’t be helped, due to the festival being cancelled last year, and the band having already committed to the other event. Hopefully we will have them back to play for us at some point.
This year’s headliners are the fantastic ‘Headsticks’, who have confirmed they will be headlining this year’s festival, see below for the full up to date festival band line-up…
Main Stage
Headsticks
McHale’s Permanent Brew
Jess Silk
Bard Company
Presentations/Shaun Fallows (front of main stage)
Commoners Choir
More Than Words
Carol Hodge Band
Fine Lines
TicNoToc
Song and Story Stage
Steam Town
John D Revelator
Vision Thing
Stephen Smith
HazJak
Poets (George Melling, Jimmy Andrex and Carla Mellor)
Cobalt Tales
Martin Purdey (Harp and Monkey)
Hopefully see you all on the 9th September.
Greetings Diggers All,
As you can imagine, the Festival organising committee are deeply disappointed that the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, has been followed by the cancellation of our Festival. This decision to cancel the festival was not ours to make, instead it has come about because Wigan Council were required to implement a protocol that has been in existence for many years (and all councils in the UK have similar protocols.). Believe Square is the area allocated for events required following the death of a monarch, the fact that it coincided with our festival is sheer bad luck and is no reflection on the attitude of the council to The Diggers, or Socialist events in general.
Following a meeting of the committee, it has been decided that the whole festival will be carried over to next year – so put the date Saturday, September 9th, 2023 in your diaries.
We would also like to thank the kindness of all those suppliers, stall holders and sponsors who have already pledged their support, either by refusing payment despite the late cancellation or maintaining the donations they have already made or promised.
Finally, we have suffered some losses and so we are planning a number of fund raising schemes and events running through to the next festival and we sincerely hope that you will also offer your support.
Let’s continue to be united in our quest to make the earth a common treasury for all.
Wigan Diggers
Dear All,
Unfortunately, Wigan Council have taken a decision to cancel public events in the immediate future, including The Diggers Festival. We are sorry to share this news at what is undoubtably a sad time for so many. The place where the festival was supposed to be taking place will now be the focal point for official mourning within the borough.
At this stage we do not know what will happen to the festival, but we will update you as soon as we know.
We hope that you understand that all events and decisions connected with this are completely beyond our control.
All best wishes.
Wigan Diggers Committee
PS Whatever your feelings are about events, this is not the place to express them.
Great pics by Tracy Walker from a great afternoon at Bard Company’s Wigan Diggers’ Festival preview HMV gig, with Vision Thing, Pete & Paul Cunliffe & co, Pauline Blackburn & Dave Gaskell and Rooster Rebellion – Colin & Gillian Barkley. Thank you, from the Wigan Diggers’ Festival committee to HMV Wigan, and all the musicians for playing, and all who came to watch. Special thank you to the members of Bard Company for organising this event.
Wigan Diggers' Festival 