We're hot for the Great Dorset Steam Fair (From Bournemouth Echo)

We're hot for the Great Dorset Steam Fair

5:00pm Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in News By Stephen Bailey

THE Great Dorset Steam Fair, the second biggest festival held in the county, is gearing up for action.

The event attracts more than 200,000 people to a farm near Tarrant Hinton and is only beaten in size by the Bournemouth Air Festival.

There are steam engines, vintage vehicles, rural craft shows, animal displays bands, car stunts, and a fairground.

Dorset County Council has already warned drivers to beware of delays around the A354 thanks to the number of visitors.

This year’s show is from Wed-nesday, August 29, to Sunday, September 2.

Organisers promise “a typically British event offering a unique blend of nostalgia and entertainment – there is no other event like this anywhere in the world”.

The Wurzels are returning for the fourth year in a row and more than 90 bands will perform over five days.

The stunt displays, which featured for the first time last year, are back by popular demand, and include demonstrations by the White Helmets, the motorcycle display team of the Blandford-based Royal Signals.

The International Big Pete Monster Truck Display Team will also be back with racing, car crushing and a tug of war where a car is pulled in two. More than 100 military vehicles and 250 vintage tractors are amongst the 1,000 vehicles on show.

The folk music marquee has been renamed after Michael Oliver MBE, the Child Okeford man who founded the show in 1969, and who died in 2009.

Martin Oliver, son of Michael, said: “Every year the Great Dorset Steam Fair gets even bigger and 2012 is certainly no exception.”

For more details on this year’s fair, email enquiries@gdsf.co.uk or call 01258 860361.