SOCIAL media farming influencer Sophie Gregory is heading to the 2024 Planet Purbeck Festival.

The charismatic young Dorset farmer – voted Dairy Industry Woman of the Year in 2021 – will join an array of speakers at the festival’s showcase event, dubbed A Celebration Of Purbeck.

Sophie, who has more than 20,000 followers across Instagram and other social media platforms, will talk about her journey from accountancy to managing an organic dairy herd and her educational work with children.

She will join other luminaries including Martin Lines, head of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and the National Trust’s regional director Rebecca Burton for the evening event at Swanage’s Mowlem Theatre.

“I’m excited to be part of the Planet Purbeck Festival. It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect our community with the origins of our food and the future of farming in Dorset,” Sophie said.

“I’m hoping to inspire a wider audience to embrace sustainability and champion our local environment.”

Planet Purbeck is changing the format of the 2024 festival from the ‘wild week’ of previous celebrations, lasting several days, to ‘two wild weekends’.

Weekend One – on Saturday, September 14 – will feature a Rewilding Our Seas night, hosted by Planet Purbeck’s marine expert Doug Skinner, at which films and talks will reveal cutting-edge initiatives to restore the natural balance of our local coastal waters.

Among those present will be Oly Rush, of Upton, dubbed The Human Fish due to his epic worldwide swims to raise funds for eco causes.

On Weekend Two, the Mowlem celebration on Friday, September 20, will be followed the next day by a wide-ranging Nature and Wellbeing Fair on Swanage seafront.

More than 25 community groups and local initiatives will combine to offer families six hours of music, fun, food and free activities linked to Purbeck’s abundant natural resources.

Festival organiser, Luke M Luke, said: “We decided to focus this year’s festival on last year’s most popular events. It’s when people show up in their hundreds that the magic really happens and the good vibes flow.

“It’s such a thrill to see the joy on people’s faces in those ‘We actually live here’ moments as they discover more about what is happening on their doorstep in Purbeck.”