ORGANISERS claim this year’s Lyme Fossil Festival struck just the right balance.

The festival, which started last Thursday with school activities, was open to the public over the weekend with a wide range of events on offer.

Between 10 and 12,000 people are expected to have attended over the four days, including local schoolchildren.
Events included a discover microfossils workshop, a number of art exhibitions, and a dinosaur runway.

Kimberly Clarke, fossil festival director, said: “It’s been just fantastic. I think we had the right balance of people in Lyme Regis.

“People haven’t had to queue for hours. It’s worked really well for everybody.”

The 2014 festival theme was ‘Citizen Science’, which aimed to engage people of all ages to appreciate natural sciences, and inspire the next generation of scientists.
One of the stands popular with children was the British Antarctic Survey.

Kimberly said: “We had loads of children discovering that they are much smaller than an Emperor Penguin.

“The British Antarctic Survey had a great poster where children could measure themselves against different types of penguins.”

Kimberly added: “It’s quite easy to amaze people and get them to think about the natural world.”

It’s the ninth festival staged with the Natural History Museum, the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Team, Lyme Regis Museum, Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre and local fossil experts.

Kimberly said: “We were extremely happy to welcome the Dorset Wildlife Trust for their first festival and the Dorset Diggers.

“They are coming back next year with more activities.”

The 2015 Fossil Festival will celebrate William Smith’s map that changed the world and will take place between May 1 and May 3.