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)
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.
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.
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.
Here’s the first batch of photos by Al Balmer, from Saturday’s big do. Despite the showers earlier on, the weather improved throughout the day and the Festival was another resounding success. More photos to follow.
Photos from our 5th Festival which was another resounding success. Photos by Al Balmer.
Scene from the stage during Merry Hell’s performance at last year’s Diggers’ Festival. They’re our headline act this year, and on our main stage at 8.30pm.
5th Wigan Diggers’ Festival – Saturday 12th September – The Wiend – Wigan – WN1 1PF
It’s been a year in the making and here it is, this year’s Wigan Diggers’ Festival programme. It’s our fullest day of activies ever, and has something for everyone.
10.30 am – 11.00 am Wigan Parish Church bells will ring, as a prelude to the festival to celebrate the radical Wiganer Gerrard Winstanley who was baptised at the church in 1609, and went on to become the founder, inspirational theorist and spokesperson of the radical ‘True Leveller’ movement, better known as ”The Diggers”, during the 17th century ‘Commonwealth’ period.
11.00 am– 11.15 am – The Wiend – Official unveilling of a new Gerrard Winstanley sandstone mounted plaque to mark Wigan Council’s re-naming of the garden area of our festival site “Gerrard Winstanley Gardens”. The renaming of the area, is in recognition of the Wigan born radical thinker and activist, whose role in the history of the common people of this country, and for equality and social justice throughout the World, we commemorate each year at our festival. His and the Diggers’ vision of the Earth as “a common treasury for all”, of full equality, and of fellowship, community and love for one another, quite definitely linger on…..and provides us with inspiration and hope, for a better future for all humankind, everywhere.
The impressive sandstone mounted plaque, in recognition of Gerrard Winstanley, has been kindly donated by Wigan Councillor Lawrence Hunt, and will be officially unveiled by ex-Wigan TUC Secretary Mike Farley.
11.15 am – 11.35 am – Diggers’ Festival Town Centre Parade led by Gerrard Winstanley actor Brendan Delaney and members of Wigan Diggers’ Festival Committee (form up on The Wiend for a short walk around town).
Scene from last year’s town centre Diggers’ Parade.
11.35 am – 11.55 am – St. Geoge’s Hill 1649 Digging Re-enactment in Gerrard Winstanley Gardens (close to The Face of Wigan statue) during which our guest actor Brendan Delaney will play the role of Gerrard Winstanley, and repeat some of his famous words from April 1649. He will be accompanied by members of the Bolton Clarion Socialist Choir who will lead the singing of Winstanley’s “Diggers’ Song” and “The World Turned Upside Down” by Leon Rosselson, a song which tells the story of The Diggers, made famous by Billy Bragg.
12.00 noon – 9.30 pm OCCUPIE WIGAN BEER TENT (sponsored by Walkers Union Solicitors) OPENS + MAIN STAGE ANNOUNCEMENTS
12.15 pm to 1.15 pm – In our Arts & Culture Marquee in Gerrard Winstanley Gardens (for age range 8 years plus) – England’s most prolific writer of murder mystery plays Chris Martin, reads from his debut novel. There will be dressing up and much fun to have in solving this case!
12.30 pm to 1.00 pm – At Little Fifteen, Wallgate (approx 150 yards from main festival site opposite the Post Office – over 18s only) – John Winstanley(author of Unsigned & Unscene) will give a talk about who Gerrard Winstanley was, and what inspired him to do what he did with an “An introduction to Winstanley & Radicalism” – Words by John Gurney (RIP) & Derek Winstanley.
12.40 pm to 13.05 pm – On the Dorothy Fryman Song & Story Stage – Solo Artist: JENNIFER REID
1.00 pm to 2.00 pm – At Little Fifteen, Wallgate (opposite the Post Office) – “The Diggers and the English Revolution”a talk by Ian Brooke (who will be dressed for the part). Ian explains the creation of The Diggers in the context of the huge popular revolution that shook England in the 1640s. He outlines the movement of civil disobedience which amounted to a national uprising, that began a train of events, resulting in the overthrow of the monarchy in 1649.
1.05 pm to 1.15 pm – On our MAIN STAGE – 2015 Gerrard Winstanley ‘Spade’ Award presentation to Liverpool screen writer, producer and film maker Jimmy McGovern.
Included amongst Jimmy McGovern’s works, are the dramatisation of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, 1995-98 Liverpool Dockers’ Strike, the events of Bloody Sunday, and a recent BBC film on the controversial Joint Enterprise Law.
1.15 pm to 2.15 pm – In our Arts & Culture Marquee in Gerrard Winstanley Gardens (for age range 10 years plus) – Children’s author Su Ainsworth reads from her debut book “Drabacus” about holiday pals Susan, Dean, Pauline and Michael who are propelled into an adventure when they discover a secret lift in their hotel. Can they solve a 64 year mystery while avoiding a bizarre character and his power which reaches across time?
1.55 pm to 2.20 pm – On the Dorothy Fryman Song & Story Stage – Solo Artist: JAMIE WOODING (see: https://youtu.be/GWefO7p0W6k)
2.00 pm to 2.20 pm – Diggers’ Parade accompanied Greenall’s Brass Band (form up on outside the John Bull Chophouse for a second short walk around town).
2.00 pm to 2.30 pm – In our Arts & Culture Marquee area in Gerrard Winstanley Gardens (for age range 7 plus) – ZAZOU PUPPET THEATRE present: “The story of the Diggers”
2.00 pm to 2.30 pm – At Little Fifteen, Wallgate (opposite the Post Office) –Katharine Ann Angel (author of “Being Forgotten” & “The Froggitt Chain”) will give the first public readings from her new novel “The Burglar’s Baby” “Social responsibilities & the decline in human welfare” and provide personal anecdotes about tutoring excluded youths, fostering teens and housing the disadvantaged.
Incidental acoustic folk music will be provided by Dean Lane at the Little Fifteen
2.30 pm to 3.45 pm – At Little Fifteen, Wallgate (opposite the Post Office) – Chris Coats & Catriona Stamp present “A Season ticket to the Promised Land” – Based on material from Utopia Britannica & Communes Britannica. Come on a journey from St. Georges Hill in 1649 to Hyde Park in 1969. Meet the Diggers through the ages from Gerrard Winstanley to “King of the Hippes” Sid Rawle. “Win” a Chartist Land Settlement cottage and hear the outcome of Operation Tolstory! WARNING! May include songs, poetry, readings, film clips & FUN!
Wigan Diggers’ Festival is a great day out for little Diggers. We’ve got a Puppet Show, face painting, balloons, circus performers and lots of other entertaining and educational stuff for kids to get involved with.
3.30 pm to 4.30 pm – In our Arts & Culture Marquee in Gerrard Winstanley Gardens (for age range 6 years plus) – “The Great Snail Race of Toadflax Hall” will come to life as children are invited to colour in pictures from the book while its author Lynne Taylor tells you all about them.
3.45 pm to 4.45pm– At Little Fifteen, Wallgate (opposite the Post Office) – Poet, writer, chef, former gravedigger and exhumer with personal experience of autism, epilepsy & osteoporosis, Peter Street asks: “Work for the working class does it really pay?”
There will be over 50 stalls at this year’s festival – providing hot food, books, arts and craft products, also for our performers merchandise, local credit union, various campaign and community groups, trades unions and political organisations. See this year’s Festival Site Map for full details.
7.20 pm to 8.00 pm – On our MAIN STAGE – LIVE BAND: HEADSTICKS
8.00 pm to 8.25 pm –On the Dorothy Fryman Song & Story Stage – Solo Artist: JOE SOLO (see: https://youtu.be/rqfomuTNJsY)
8.30 pm to 9.30 pm – On our MAIN STAGE – Live Band: MERRY HELL
9.30 pm – FESTIVAL ENDS & THE BIG CLEAR UP STARTS.
This year’s festival will also play its part in the National Day of Action in solidarity with refugees everywhere, and a banner saying: REFUGEES ARE WELCOME HERE will adorn our MAIN STAGE throughout the festival. A solidarity message from our festival will also be read out at the day of action’s national demonstration in London which concludes at Downing Street.
This REFUGEES WELCOME banner will be one of our two stage banners on Saturday
LATE NEWS: Throughout the afternoon Anteros Theatre Company will be performing the opening scenes from the play ‘The Digger’s Daughter’– a historically inspired time travelling adventure – by Jonathan Kemp in Market Place (located at the bottom of The Wiend) as a taster for the full adaptation of the play to be staged next year. Our replacement Gerrard Winstanley actor, Brendan Delaney will be digging hard!”
Astral Circus Performers will also be on site to entertain us throughout the day.
FESTIVAL SITE MAP & STALL HOLDERS INFORMATION – NOTE: All stallholders are asked to be on site and have your stalls set up by no later than 10.30am on Saturday morning. You are also required to report to our Diggers HQ on arrival, and before setting up your stall . If you haven’t already paid us, you will also be expected to pay us any monies owed BEFORE you set up.
CALL OUT for VOLUNTEERS: Although we’ve already got a pretty big team of festival volunteers, WE STILL NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH A RANGE OF JOBS – from preparing the site and erecting Gazebos, and regulating vehicle access to the festival site (from 8.00am to 10.30am on Saturday morning), to site stewarding (all day), to waste control, to town centre parade stewarding (between 11.00am and 11.45am, and 1.45pm and 2.30pm) as well as after 6.00pm until 10.00pm behind the bar, serving drinks and clearing up at the end.
If you can help out then please e-mail: stevechik@talktalk.net or call 07724 139278 (this number is for volunteers only) and ask for Stephen. Alternatively, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WiganDiggersFestival and click our CALL TO ACTION button, and then follow the instructions.
For all other enquiries, including to do with accommodation, please call or e-mail:
Janet (Secretary of the Wigan Diggers’ Festival Committee) on 07539 087134 e-mail: jpsingstheblues@yahoo.co.uk Vicky (Chair of the Wigan Diggers’ Festival Committee) on 07986 129 877 e-mail: v.perry@hotmail.co.uk
Wigan Diggers' Festival 