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July 21, 2011 – The county of Dorset has picked up a record breaking crowd of tourists and locals alike as it celebrated its annual festival dubbed as Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival 2011 last Friday, July 15th to Sunday July 17th 2011.

With around 10,000 people attending the festival over the weekend on the fields in Dorset, the annual festival honors the farm laborers who were transported to Australia in 1834 for daring to form a trade union as well as to think about how they can make life better in the 21st century.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is an annual festival held in Dorset, England. It is celebrated to commemorate the memory of the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were a group of 19th century Dorset agricultural laborers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers.
The event is a celebration of trade unionism and labor politics organized by the Dorset Committee of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers now section of the TGWU and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and features a parade of banners from many trade unions, a memorial service, speeches and music.
The festival is usually held in the third week of July where each year a wreath is laid at the grave of James Hammett, one of the martyrs. The main festival events are held outside the Martyrs’ Museum on the western edge of the village. The main speeches and performances take place on a small stage in front of the Tolpuddle cottages and museum, with audience space on the green while in the adjacent field, as well as having camping space, has a marquee, Workers Beer Company bar and merchandise stalls.
For the past decade or so the annual festival has developed steadily. But this year even with the public sector cuts, tuition fees issue and concerns about seismic global events have not fazed festival goers and it even appears to have prompted even more people to head to Tolpuddle.
Australians who have attended the annual festival even compared the record breaking crowd to the massive number of Australia migration visa applicants applying for a holiday australia visa or to the increasing number of skilled workers applying for a working holiday Australia visa each year.

Source:
guardian.co.uk