Wigan Diggers’ Festival
Takes place on 12th September 2020
The Wigan Diggers’ Festival celebrates the life and ideas of Wigan born Gerrard Winstanley and the 17th Century Diggers movement.
Gerrard Winstanley (1609 – 1679) founded the Diggers who occupied public lands that had been privatised by enclosures and dug them up for crops. It is likely that Winstanley took inspiration from the Wigan clay and coal ‘Diggers’ who established their right to dig up local common land.
Although short-lived they were part of the English Revolution and remain influential today.
The Wigan Diggers’ Festival is full of live music, poetry, film, great beer, and most of all a re-born sense of community spirit among ordinary people everywhere.
Held annually, 2020 will be the festival’s tenth year on 12th September.
Image from wigandiggersfestival.org/