The Women Chainmakers' Festival brings together trade unions and community groups to host the only trade-union-run festival celebrating the success of women.
Taking place annually, the Women Chainmakers’ Festival is a family friendly event coordinated by the TUC Midlands to celebrate and commemorate the women Chainmakers of 1910, whose fight for fair pay helped shape workers’ rights across the UK.
It brings together trade unions and community groups to host the only trade-union-run festival celebrating the success of women.
Building a better future for working women
The Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath worked in inhumane conditions; they had few rights and their living and social conditions, lack of education and limited experience outside of their immediate community made them vulnerable to exploitation.
Featuring national entertainers and speakers, including a ‘Mary Macarthur’ in period costume delivering one of Mary’s rousing speeches and a procession of modern unions and ‘strikers’ dressed as Edwardian chainmakers’, the festival ensures that this historic episode is celebrated by the local community and trade unionists from all over the country.
There is much to celebrate and commemorate about the women Chainmakers’ of Cradley Heath and, sadly, their example and circumstances remains relevant to many working in Britain today.
The Chainmakers’ Festival brings the Black Country community together with the trade union movement. Through examining our history we can deliver a better future for women and our wider society.
Meet your MU Regional Officials
The festival is free to attend, and includes plenty of activities and entertainment, including street theatre, re-enactments, live metalworking, political stalls and speeches, music, children’s activities and entertainment.
There will be a Musicians' Union stall located in the Mary Macarthur Gardens throughout the day, and Regional officials will be available to talk to musicians about the many benefits of MU membership.
Date: Saturday 28 June 2025
Time: 11am - 5:30pm
Location: Mary Mcarthur Gardens, Cradley Heath, B64 5AP
For more details, visit the TUC event page.