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.

The wonderful Merry Hell

This year’s Wigan Diggers’ festival running order, for both stages.

We are now taking food vendor applications for the Wigan Diggers’ festival 2021 (11th September 2021).
Our festival is run completely by volunteers and attracts around 5000 visitors throughout the day.
We love to make sure that everyone involved in the festival is treated well, so we like to have a chat with you about a fair fee for your stall.
If you would like to trade at this year’s festival, then please fill in the form by clicking the link below with as much detail as possible, and we will contact you about arrangements.

Food Vendor application Form

You must have your own public liability insurance, power/food heating supply and food hygiene certification. We also do not allow generators on site.

Volunteers wanted for this year’s festival

We are looking for volunteers to help out with this year’s festival on the 11th September 2021, we need people to help build the festival site on the Friday and take it all down again on the Sunday, we really could do with some extra help doing this, it’s a big job, and we need some lovely people to help us out.

Also, on the day itself we need volunteers for various jobs, everything from working behind the bar, help with stewarding the festival site, collecting rubbish throughout the day or helping behind the stage. Hours would be to suit you on the day.

Any help would be really appreciated, please email us via wigandiggers@gmail.com

Please include your full name and contact details, so we can get back to you by email or phone if needed.

Thank you,

Wigan Diggers’ Committee.