2023 Great Dorset Steam Fair cancelled

Chris Graham reports on the sad decision to cancel this year’s Great Dorset Steam Fair; an event that’s a favourite for so many enthusiasts.

Sadly, the Great Dorset Steam Fair organisers have announced that this year’s event has been cancelled, so visitors and exhibitors will have to wait until the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2024 for their next visit to Tarrant Hinton.

Commenting on the decision, the organisers explained: ‘This has been an extremely difficult decision for us to make. While the 2022 event was a fantastic and resounding success as a spectacle, it was also mired by significant and spiralling increases in contractor, infrastructure and organisational costs. These costs have risen disproportionately this year and, crucially, are very difficult to forecast for next year, given the current economic climate.

‘While we appreciate that this will come as a surprise to many – given the success of the 2022 event – as the organisers of such a large-scale event, we are acutely aware of the financial unknowns moving into 2023, with further cost increases likely and our regular customers, exhibitors and traders also feeling the financial squeeze.

Given the ongoing economic situation, rising inflation and the cost of living crisis, the reality is that it would be financially challenging for us to run the event in 2023. To safeguard and preserve the future of the Great Dorset Steam Fair, we believe this to be the right decision, and one that will enable us to continue to run a high-quality event in 2024 and beyond.

‘We’d like to thank you all for your continued support, and look forward to seeing you again on August 22nd-26th, 2024.’

This news items comes from the latest issue of Classic Massey & Ferguson Enthusiast, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE