COMMUNITY festival Grooves on the Green went with a swing last weekend at Ashley Cross in Parkstone.

The 15th anniversary family-friendly music festival saw thousands of revellers make the most of the sunshine on Saturday and defy the light rain on Sunday as bands including The Baker Brothers, Mutant Vinyl, The Mother Ukers, Klaudia and Afro Tallaweh kept everyone on their feet.

“It was a great weekend, without a doubt one of the best yet,” said Mick Callaghan, one of the festival organisers.

Grooves on the Green once again raised money for Diverse Abilities Plus, which helps children and adults in Dorset who live with profound disability and smashed its target of £10,000 raised in the last three years alone.

“We’re waiting for the final figure, but what we’ve raised this weekend will take us well over the £10,000 mark,” says Mick.

“That’s a fantastic tribute to the big-hearted people of Ashley Cross and further afield, all the local businesses that support us and the bands and crew who gave their time for free. It was another amazing effort all round.”

With live music on two stages, Grooves on the Green also featured its own local food and beer festival, a dedicated kids’ zone, literary interventions from the Freeway Poets and a mini film festival, while a tintype photography booth echoed the park’s Victorian roots.

Saturday’s Main Stage was headlined by Bournemouth band The Baker Brothers with G13, Afro-Cubano-reggae mixers Afro Tallawah, Kaia, All About Tobe and Krista Green & the Bees. The Sunday bill included the Paul McCartney/Tricky-endorsed Mutant Vinyl as well as Duveaux, Signals, Not Made In China, Fearne and performance folkorists Wikkaman.

Meanwhile, hosted by Si Genaro from BBC’s The Voice, the Calling Stage was part-programmed by acts voted for by the readers of the Bournemouth Daily Echo and showcased the very best of Dorset’s unsigned talent with weekend highlights including the irrepressible Mother Ukers, Lithuanian-born indie-dance queen Klaudia, the robust garage beat of The Power Thief, hotly tipped singer songwrtter Lee Rasdall-Dove and chart topping Ivor Novello-nominated songwriter Ian Brown.