A festival highlighting the many great things to do in Portland has returned for its fifth year.

The Spirit of Portland Festival, organised by Portland Community Partnership, will feature a number of events and activities for people of all ages across the island in celebration of the island’s unique heritage, culture and natural environment.

Supported by Portland Town Council, the festival started last Friday, July 28, and runs till Sunday, August 6, with most of the events having free entry.

In part, the festival aims to attract both locals and visitors to locations in Portland which people would not usually go to.

Two of the biggest events on this week according to Andy Matthews, chairman of the Portland Community Partnership, will be the Dino Day at Portland Museum on Friday, from 10.30am to 4pm, and the Southwell Street Fayre at Southwell Village on Saturday, from 1pm to 6pm.

The Dino Day is often very popular with kids and will feature a number of dinosaur-related activities for families to get involved in.

The Southwell Street Fayre will feature live music from local bands, including Gut and Steel and Mickey Biggs. It will also feature plenty of stalls, children’s games and rides, a BBQ, a raffle and more to raise money for Portland charities.

Geoff Daniels, chairman of the fayre's committee, said the main charity the fayre will be raising money for will be the Osprey Leisure Centre and he encouraged people to come down and enjoy themselves.

He said: “Bring your own sandwiches, listen to the music; kids can go on the fair rides and everything is set at a minimum price.” 

There are various other events going on through the rest of this week, including a summer garden party at St George’s church on Saturday starting at 2pm.

Andy said that the festival was going well but that over the weekend a couple of events had to be called off or postponed due to the weather.

He said: “It’s good, but unfortunately with this weather we had to postpone the Portland Fete.” 

It is hoped that the fete, organised by Portland Town Council, might be able to be put on at a later date. 

Andy suggested that festival organisers would not be put off by any bad weather.

He said: “The whole idea of the festival is we are not focused on one single event. If you have bad weather there are always other things going on. It’s a flexible as it can be in terms of not being dependent on one single day.”