Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporter.
A tattoo festival featuring combat sports, cage grappling, axe and knife throwing and a witch’s market is being planned for a countryside Dorset site in the autumn.
The event is being advertised as taking place between October 16 and 18th to the south of Bere Regis and says it will include: “ink, combat, culture and craft” with up to 150 tattoo artists from across the UK and abroad.
It is being organised by Warriors and Witches, a new company which only started in business in May 2026 and lists two directors – Andrew Elliott aged 42 with a London address, and Richard River, aged 49 with the Sandford Hotel, Sandford given as a correspondence address.
The Companies House record lists the nature of the business as: “activities of exhibition and fair organisers.”
A similar event recently took place on Weymouth Beach, organised by a company with a different name.
Running in parallel with the planned event is a licensing application for the Fairview Orchard site, at Lane End, Bere Regis, including the sale of alcohol, martial arts, dance and live music.
The site lies to the south of Bere Regis and to the north of Bovington.
A public consultation on the Premises Licence, which the application says will cover three fields adjacent to Fairview Orchard, totalling 33 acres, has just opened and will remain open until September 17th.
None of the activities in the licence application continue beyond 10.30pm and are limited to Fridays, Saturday and Sundays.
