A POPULAR festival will be making a spectacular return following last year's cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic and months of uncertainty due to changing restrictions.

Bridport Folk Festival will run throughout the town from tomorrow until Sunday, August 15 - and final calls are still being made for volunteers to help the event run smoothly.

The highlights of the festival are two shows featuring some top folk music talent, on Friday at Bridport Town Hall and Saturday at Electric Palace.

Friday's show will be headlined by Kent-based four-piece band, Open Water and supported by Antoine and Owena. Saturday will see fast, fun, foot tapping music courtesy of Quinns Quinney, followed by the highly acclaimed Gadarene, with their traditional English tunes, virtuoso acoustic musicians and funky beats.

There will also be music throughout the town over the three days at Bucky Doo Square, the Millennium Green, and Burrough Gardens. In addition to this, there will be morris dancing groups performing throughout the town.

Things have not been easy for the organisers of the festival this year, with uncertainty over what restrictions may be in place this summer, the event being rescheduled several times and the team being unable to carry out their usual fundraising events due to the lockdown.

Organiser of the festival, Chris Deacon, said: "It feels fantastic to be able to put this event on after all the uncertainty of this year. The local authorities and the town council have been fabulous in making sure it goes ahead.

"We've had to jump through a lot of hoops and there's much more paperwork this year. We've had to start fundraising very late in the year but people have been very responsive and we've had fantastic support.

"The original plan was to scale it back but it has grown into something a bit bigger, and is pretty much at the traditional size. The programme is solid and the weather is looking good, everything is in place."

He added: "We want to thank the wonderful people of the town who have been so generous and have enabled the festival to go ahead."

The last Bridport Folk Festival took place in 2019, with the 2020 event being cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

This year's festival will be raising money for the Burrough Harmony Centre, which offers support, information and a variety of enjoyable activities to local people who are living with a mental health problem.

The team behind the festival still need volunteers with local knowledge to help out across the weekend, with rewards such as free tickets available to those who sign up.

To sign up as a volunteer or for more information on the weekend of events, visit www.bridportfolkfestival.com.