This weekend marks the return of a popular Dorchester festival.

The fourth annual Cider Festival will once again be coming to the Borough Gardens and as always, promises to an exciting day filled with the finest cider producers from across the South West.

The event is organised by the Dorchester Round Table and this year's cider village will consist of more 10 different cider producers from the region, including, West Milton Cider, Bridge Farm and Twisted Cider. There will also be other drinks available, including soft drink and cocktails, if cider isn’t to your taste.

This year, thanks to the support of the Ship Inn, organisers have produced reusable pint glasses, which will be sold for £3 each.

The food village will offer a wide variety of dishes, including Dorset Wood Fired Pizza, The Celtic Kitchen, Taste of Thailand, and lots more.

Acts confirmed to perform on the bandstand are: Danny Adams at from 3pm to 4pm, followed by The Riffs at 4.30pm to 5.30pm. Crowd favourites The Leggomen are playing at 6.30pm and the headliners The Skimmity Hitchers, who are invited back as the ultimate cider festival band to perform their ’Scrumpy & Western’ songs, most of of which are about cider, will provide a barnstorming finale to the day from 8.30pm til the close.

There will also be an acoustic stage and the Heckle & Squelch comedy club tent, which is back for the second year running.

Organisers are also running a very special raffle with two pairs of Dorchester Town FC season tickets up for grabs.

Paul Castle from the Dorchester Round Table said: “We are thoroughly looking forward to the event this year. It has become an unmissable occasion, arguably one of Dorchester’s best, with a real sense of community spirit. The aim of the festival is to raise money for the Dorchester Round Table who redistribute all of the profit made at the event to local good causes.

"Last year Dorchester Round Table raised in excess of £7,000 for local charities, we hope to be able to improve on that this time with the Cider Festival being an integral part of making that happen.

"I joined the Round Table earlier this year and I can recommend it as a worthwhile way of ‘giving something back’. Round Table is a national organisation of professional young men, aged from 18 to 45 and is all about fun, fellowship and fundraising.

"We’ve seen a great response to our Facebook event page campaign. Now we’re hoping for good weather, so that we can continue to raise more money for local good causes.

In addition to the now firmly-established annual Cider Festival, we look forward to announcing a brand new event soon, with a planned launch early in the New Year.”

The Dorchester Cider Festival will take place on Saturday, August 18 from 3pm, and will run until 10:30pm.

For more information visit the Dorchester Round Table Facebook page.