Dorset knob throwing festival cancelled for 'growing too big'

Organisers of the iconic Dorset knob-throwing competition have cancelled it after revealing it was simply too large an event to be run by a village committee.

Issues in procuring biscuits used at the event as well as the pulling out of the management team have also been blamed for the cancellation of the knob-throwing competition. The same is being said for the Frome Valley Food Festival.

The event has only taken place once in the last three years, having been shelved in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.

Organisers of this year's event have said the large numbers of people that attended in 2019 - over 8,000 - meant the knob-throwing can no longer be organised by a village committee.

Alexandra Watts, chair of knob-throwing committee said: “It is with great sadness that the Dorset Knob-throwing and Frome Valley Food Festival is unable to go ahead on May 1.

“We had more than 8,000 people attend the 2019 event, meaning it has reached such a size that it simply cannot be run by a small village committee.

“We’ve looked at various options but sadly couldn’t make any of them work for this year for many reasons.

“We also sadly lost the support of our event management team late in 2021 and agreements with Moores Biscuits to provide the biscuits for the event’s games also took much longer than anticipated.”

The event, iconic in the area, is based around the tradition of throwing 'knobs' in a field. The event also includes other activities such as knob-and-spoon racing, and knob eating competitions.

The knobs are traditional biscuits, made using fermented dough.