PLANS for a major festival just outside Dorchester are hotting up.

The Forever Sun Festival at the Came Estate is returning for a second year and promises to shine even brighter this time round.

A host of major acts have been lined up including the Happy Mondays, Buzzcocks, Dub Pistols and Toploader performing over the weekend of Friday, July 25 to Sunday, July 27.

Festival organisers David and Alice Williams are working tirelessly ahead of the festival weekend and are expecting around 3,000 people to come and join in the Forever Sun fun.

David said the festival would serve as a boost to the local area, with many people coming from around the country to enjoy the event, but added that local people were also expected to turn out in force to grab a slice of the action.

He said: “To date we have sold most of our tickets out of the area as local people tend to buy later.

“With the Happy Mondays coming down we’ve got loads of people coming from Manchester and we have got acts from Glasgow so we’ve also got people coming down from there.

“We have had lots of people from all over the country coming to it and obviously we will also get a good show of local people as they decided to buy tickets later in the day.

David said that they had tried to book the Happy Mondays for last year’s event but had not been able to as they were touring all year and was delighted to have secured the act at the second time of asking.

He said the aim of the event was to give people a traditional festival experience as an alternative to some of the more family orientated events with no under 14s admitted at Forever Sun.

David said: “We are trying to make the festival about the music and get away from festivals that have been run as fun fairs.”

Alice added: “It’s going to be a more old fashioned music festival where people come along for the music and the acts rather than a day out for all the family.”

This year the festival will kick off on Friday evening, meaning people will not miss out if they have to work during the day on the Friday, with music across the rest of the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

There will be a shuttle bus running from the Fairfield car park in Dorchester to the festival site across the weekend.

The event is also affiliated to two charities, local cause the Steve Charles Help a Friend Fund and the Big Issue Foundation.

For tickets visit foreversun.co.uk