THE sun may not have played ball and the rain was described as Biblical, but that didn’t stop the 5,000 people who attended from describing Dorchester’s first ever Forever Sun music festival as a brilliant success.

So to capitalise on this, organiser Jamie Pinnow is holding a second two-day Forever Sun in July, bringing to town a host of rocking performers on a national and local scale.

Although it is early days he has already lined-up an impressive roll-call of musical talent, including Buzzcocks, former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, John Otway, Professor Elemental, The Lovely Eggs and Moulettes.

As well as national bands, Jamie is also using his festival to promote local musicians. He said that one of the highlights of last year’s Forever Sun was a performance by Weymouth-based folk rockers The Dolmen who will be returning this year.

“The Dolmen played on the Friday night at the same time as Republica, who I was worried would steal all the crowds, but both bands had festival-sized audiences going crazy in front of them and it was just brilliant, great atmosphere, great light shows, a great night,” said Jamie.

“Obviously it’s a major coup to have big names coming to a festival but it’s also important to support the local bands because we have so many good ones here.”

Jamie said that organising his first festival from scratch and dealing with everything from toilets and traffic to a hospitality tent being blown away in the wild weather was an interesting learning experience.

This year he and his team feel more experienced and are hoping Forever Sun 2014 will show that.

“It’s a great feeling, organising your own festival in your home town and seeing all these amazing acts turn up to perform,” said Jamie.

“On the first night last year I was walking through the site, listening to the bands, It was quite foggy and the light shows were amazing and lots of friends kept coming up to me through the mist and saying ‘well done’ and ‘you’ve done it’.

“It was something I will never forget.”

* Forever Sun 2014 is at the Came Estate, just off the A352 between Dorchester and Broadmayne on July 26 and 27.

For full details and tickets visit foreversun.co.uk

* As well as Forever Sun, Jamie Pinnow is also running a number of special one-off gigs in Dorchester throughout 2014 under his Mmm...nice! gig label.

The first gig is tonight, January 31, at Dorchester Arts Centre with a performance by the Fab Beatles, ably supported by the Half-Dead Darlings.

The Fabs are regarded by many as more than ‘just’ a tribute band and are hailed worldwide not just for sounding exactly like the Fab Four, but also for their authentic Beatles-era costumes and instruments.

Doors open at 7.30pm and there are still a few tickets left from the box office on 01305 266926 or in person from the arts centre at School Lane, The Grove, Dorchester.

Further Mmm..nice music! shows scheduled for the year are John Power of Cast and the La’s in April, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in October and Geno Washington at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester on Saturday, November 29.

Jamie said: “If people see a poster round town with Mmm...nice! on it, I want them to know that they are in for some quality music.”