A “MINI-FESTIVAL” is coming to Shaftesbury at the end of the month, to give music lovers “a bit of fun” after around five months of lockdown.

Following the return of busking and live music to the town, event company Club One Eleven is bringing three musicians to Edwards Farm on August 29.

The event was originally planned to coincide with Shaftesbury Fringe at the beginning of July, but was halted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, alt-pop due The Kind, storyteller soloist Samuel Jack and band Bamily will be performing to a social distanced crowed of 300 people, at what organisers have described as “a mini-festival”. Food and drink vendors will also be onsite.

Sarah Junor, one of the event organisers, said she was “super excited” that Dorset Council had given the event the green light, adding that before Covid-19 there was a focus to make this bigger than what the farm held last year.

Talking about herself and fellow organisers Alex Gibbs and Dill Hillam, she said: “The three of us have had a couple of ‘pop up’ restaurant nights in our corrugated barn onsite, and last year we had a live open air music event for 100. We had always planned to do a bigger event this year, in July, which of course was cancelled.

“As live singers were beginning to be seen in lockdown, Sam [Jack] got in touch with us and said ‘can we do something?’.

“We wanted to give musicians a chance to be heard, and food and bar vendors an opportunity to trade.”

Safety and social distancing measures will be in place throughout the event, with 20 marshals onsite, hand sanitiser provided, Covid-19 waiver forms, temperature checks and a one-way system.

The grounds have also been mown into patches, labelled by the team as ‘pods’, to ensure a two-metre distance between each group of guests.

“Putting something like this on is an amazing feeling - the three of us just get on so well and we love it. We’re aware we may have to pull the plug at any time, but if we can pull this off it will be fab,” Sarah added.

“Live entertainment is at the heart of what we do, and we just really enjoy it - we get to create our own fun and put on an evening that we would want to go to. We all just need a bit of fun now and something to get excited about.”

Any proceeds from the event will be donated to Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

For more information and tickets visit cluboneeleven.co.uk