All set for the Folk of Jarrow - Rebel Town Festival as popular event returns

The 2020 festival was stopped by covid. This year’s event was originally scheduled for July 3, but postponed due to concerns over the spread of the Delta variant.

Former miners’ leader Arthur Scargill and Kate Osborne, who attends the event for the first time as Jarrow’s MP, will be among the speakers at the rescheduled festival.

The festival will start at 11am with an assembly at the Jobling memorial, close to the entrance to the pedestrian Tyne Tunnel, where Ms Osborne will address the crowd and wreaths will be laid.

A procession, led by the Felling Band, will make its way towards the Gin & Ale House on Walter Street. The public will be entertained by folk music, particularly music associated with mining and the North East.

The main rally will gather there with Mr Scargill expected to make his speech some time after 1pm, followed by more musical entertainment throughout the day.

The event has been organised by Follonsby Wardley Miners Lodge Banner Community Heritage Association, with the Durham Miners Association, the National Education Union and “with thanks to South Tyneside County Council Community Fund”.

Association secretary Dave Douglass will make a short speech in Gaelic, in recognition of the historical Irish contribution to Jarrow’s mining and other industries.

He joked: “Hopefully there’ll be no one there who will point out all my mistakes.”

The Rebel Town Festival commemorates significant events in the labour movement, including the 1936 Jarrow March.

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