Journalists in Dorset are inviting colleagues from around the country to join them at the Tolpuddle Martyrs rally and festival.

Around 8,000 people are expected to attend the event, which celebrates the birth of the trade union movement.

The event, which takes place in the village of Tolpuddle, a few miles outside Dorchester on July 20 and 21, is a stunning mix of drama, music and politics.

Singer Billy Bragg is the star attraction on Sunday, and there will be speeches from TUC general secretary John Monks and education minister Estelle Morris. On Saturday evening, salsa band CoCo Express will get the crowd on their feet and dancing until midnight.

Miranda Holman, the National Union of Journalists mother of chapel at the Dorset Echo, said: “We have around a dozen members from the Dorset Echo chapel attending on the Saturday night and stumbling in a hungover fashion behind an NUJ banner on Sunday – and we’d love it if other NUJ members could join us for a spot of campfire singing and marshmallow singeing.

“This will be the first time reporters, photographers and subs from the Echo have appeared en mass at the rally and it promises to be great fun – like Glastonbury but without Rod Stewart, thank goodness!

“If anyone wants to share a steaming cocoa by the campfire or, even better, seven pints of Stella in the beer tent, send me an e-mail and we’ll arrange to meet up.”

More details about the Tolpuddle Festival can be found at www.tuc.org.uk/tolpuddle. Miranda Holman can be contacted on [email protected].

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]