Have you ever had one of those dreams when you are in paradise with vibrant bright colours, smiley faces and everything is just right? Well this weekend the dream came true as the sun shone on the Southern Light Festival 2010.

With one the of world's best views and scenic surroundings for a festival, the stunning location of Kimmeridge in Dorset hosted a unique and rather special event bringing together international circus and street art performers from around the globe.

It must be the UK's largest event where creative talent and people with big hearts of gold get together to have fun. The Southern Lights Festival 2010 is a jam-packed weekend of shows, workshops, dancing, camping and relaxing for all ages. Created and organised by Simon Chainey, Matt Wilkinson, Lee Broomfield and Reza Samadi, these four guys demonstrated that with the passion, skill and a field......you can achieve anything!!!!

As the gates opened from Friday, ticket holders arrived to the sell out event clutching tents, sleeping bags and provisions. Ready for a few days of summertime refreshment the camping and parking areas soon filled up and the music began to fill the air as Southern Lights Festival 2010 came alive for it's third year running.

Southern Lights has something for everyone including a whole array of unsigned music. DJs and musicians performing live entertained the festival goers with a wide variety of styles and genres. Amongst a great line up, Friday introduced a band from Manchester called Shmoo who got the dance floor jumping with electronic mixes and foot stomping tracks. Other musical highlights came from Elephant Talk and one of the festival organisers turned DJ, Reza Samadi who kept the party flowing on Saturday evening. All musical performances brought flavour such as Astrophysics, Safe Breakers, DJ Hands On, Mr Lively, Chris Woodford, 2CBeeBies and party ska band, Skangsters.

Not only did the crowds dance and sing yet also had the opportunity to watch and learn from some of the world's best street art performers. The daytime brought a selection of activities where you could either get involved and learn skills or simply watch and relax. The calibre was jaw dropping with special guests from the UK and overseas who are the best in their field such as Safire from Canada, the world champion hula hooper, Rob Roy Collins, escapologist, Spencer Planton, highly talented juggler, Chris Brown, contact ball extraordinaire and Marky Jay comedy compere plus so many more. Laughter and cheers could be heard from one of the workshop areas as Kasrani the magician hosted "Basic Card Manipulation". Teaching his audience to perform with cards, his lesson brought comedy, rhymes and such a stage presence that the onlookers were hooked.

Moving around the field people were playing drums, shopping at the stalls, enjoying fresh food from the vendors, laying back and watching the world go by or for most practicing their talent. From juggling to acrobatics, balancing balls to hula hooping everywhere you looked was someone with an impressive skill. This was THE event to see performance and such content people. An informal gathering for such a creative, expressive and friendly culture, Southern Lights Festival is surely one of the world's most exciting hidden gems?

With such a safe and happy atmosphere parents were able to watch their children be dazzled by the performers as well as enjoy the kiddies area hosted by Treehouse Theatre. Activities included a pirate party, circus arts, story telling and their very own mini talent competition. Even tiny babies were enjoying their first festival.

The sun shone proudly on this year's Southern Lights Festival and hats off to the four superstar organisers who kept it running like clock work. Simon, Matt, Lee and Reza deserve amazing credit for the hard work and commitment they gave to make all of this happen. Not only are they highly talented fire performers in their company F.L.A.M.E but also their lovely personalities make the event what it is. A special mention must go to their crew who also worked so hard and made it such a wonderful time for so many people. This is such a special event and important to remain fairly low key to keep the magic. With a capacity of 500 people and welcoming such a inspirational street art culture of guests and industry, the Southern Lights Festival is a true asset to Europe's booming festival calendar. When thinking about what to improve for Southern Lights Festival 2011.......I wouldn't change a thing!

Suzy Wheeler Strawberry Fields Presents Email: suzy@dorsetmusic.com Useful links: http://www.flamefireshows.com/ http://www.southernlightsfestival.co.uk/ http://www.safiredance.com/ http://www.robroycollins.com/ http://www.samuelkasrani.com/ http://www.shmoo.co.uk/ http://www.myspace.com/elephanttalkuk http://www.myspace.com/chriswoodfordmusic http://www.treehousetheatre.org/about.htm http://www.michaelpalmer.com/