Cometh the summer, cometh the festivals, that annual round of mud, wellies, dodgy loos and – of course – fabulous music.

Dorset has become home to several fabulous festivals, none more so than Larmer Tree, a five-day feast of music, comedy and much, much more that takes place every July in a sublime North Dorset setting.

For the past 23 years, this very quirky and English event has attracted some of the biggest names in music and popular culture and won two of the industry’s highest accolades – the Best Family Festival and Best Toilets awards.

“It is a very friendly festival,” said James Shepherd, who founded Larmer Tree with former Salisbury Arts centre children’s co-ordinator Julia Safe.

“We were trying to create something that we would be happy to be a part of. We wanted it to be somewhere where people could meet other like-minded people and forget their worries for a while.

“We always seem to get really lovely people coming to Larmer Tree. Last year when the weather was so bad and the rain torrential, people were helping each other out and the volunteers were amazing. We thought they would all go home because it was so appalling, but they stayed on and asked if there was more they could do. When Paloma Faith arrived the mud was so bad her lorry couldn’t get near the stage so they had to unload everything into smaller vans to get it on site and afterwards they were still packing her set up at 4am. They were incredible.”

The line-up for this year’s Larmer Tree, which runs from July 17 to 21, reads like a Who’s Who of the great and good in the upper echelons of folk-rock and blues.

Van Morrison is the big-name draw, while Imelda May, Dexy’s, KT Tunstall, Seasick Steve and The Beat will also be there.

Folk legend Richard Thompson is performing with his Electric Trio and Bellowhead, who won this year’s Radio 2 Folk Award for best album will also put in an appearance.

Larmer also has a rich seam of comedy to explore and there are slots from Dylan Moran and Alistair McGowan, not to mention the ever-popular Hoedown with Rich Hall.

Mark Kermode will be on hand to talk about and present this year’s film selection on the topic of time-travel, while for families there’s street theatre, Katie from Cbeebies, a wide range of children’s shows plus YouthZone where youngsters aged between 10 and 17 can learn circus skills, build camps and much more besides.

And if that doesn’t tempt you, there are always the gardens themselves to admire. Created near the village of Tollard Royal by General Pitt-Rivers in 1880 for ‘public enlightenment and entertainment’, the 11-acre gardens are ornate and tranquil, broken by tree-lined walkways, elegant buildings and resident peacocks.

The festival is just one of the many events taking place in the grounds, and is a much bigger beast than James’ first Larmer Festival in 1990, which was a one-day folk affair with an audience of 150, headlined by Dick Hextall-Smith. The inspiration came from a jazz festival in Bracknell, but Dorset-born James had been working in the music industry before then.

“I was in bands when I was a teenager in the 1960s and gradually I became the one who hired the van and sorted the financial side of things until I finally started promoting other bands,” he said.

“I put The Cure on in a Yeovil pub when they were just breaking and had just released their first album. The landlord was thrilled, but then all the kids who turned up were too young to drink so he couldn’t serve them beer!”

He added: “I wanted my own festival after going to the Bracknell Jazz Festival so I was looking for somewhere that was a nice place to spend a weekend when I found the Larmer Gardens. I still get a real thrill from seeing the bands perform on the old stage that was built in the 1880s.

“The first time Van Morrison played Larmer Tree was just incredible. I remember seeing him on stage and thinking ‘that is a hero of mine and now he’s at my festival!’ It was pretty special.

“There are so many brilliant memories, but every festival is good when people are there and enjoying themselves and smiling and it’s all going well. We have 5,000 people a day to look after so we have to get it right. This year I’m looking forward to seeing Van Morrison again and also Seasick Steve. If money was no object, I suppose I’d have to say I’d try to book Dylan or Jack White.”

Dreams aside, there is still a lot for James, Julia and their thousands of festival-goers to look forward to.

“Some people come for the whole event, some for just a day or some for the weekend, but it is always a very special time,” said James.

“And then once we’ve seen the last people off we have a bit of a breather and start planning the next one!”

For full details and tickets for Larmer Tree, visit larmertreefestival.co.uk or call 01725 552300.