FRENCH onion sellers took over Bridport last week for the first Onion Jack Festival.

A boatload of 'Onion Johnnies' embarked at West Bay Harbour before stopping off at a host of locations in the town.

The Breton travelling door-to-door onion sellers, set up shop at Washingpool Farm in Allington for the weekend - along with performing music and raising money for charity in Bucky Doo Square.

After arriving from Roscoff in Brittany, the onions were unloaded and stacked on a horse-drawn cart.

After initially shedding their load of onions in West Bay when the horse reared up - the Onion Johnnies made it safely to Washingpool Farm.

The celebrations continued with French-themed evenings, Breton market stalls, live music, food-tasting events and the chance to have afternoon tea or Sunday lunch with the Onion Johnnies.

Washing Pool Farm's Simon Holland said it had been an excellent event.

He said the event was jointly organised by Washingpool Farm and the French onion sellers.

He said: "We have been stocking their Roscoff onions for the past eight years and they wanted to promote that and re-establish the Johnnies' tradition of being over here with their onions.

"They came in by boat with a selection of their produce then paraded up through town and stopped off at Groves Nursery for breakfast, then moved on to Palmers for a sample of beer.

"We had their band on the back of a trailer coming up through town, their guys on bikes and us from Washingpool walking through the town.

"The band played in Bucky Doo Square before coming to Washingpool. Then in the evenings we had a circus act entertainment as a bit of a cabaret and the band, Electric Bazaar, played in the evenings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

"Then during the days they had a Breton market with their produce. It all went very well.

"There are things to improve on as with any event. The public satisfaction was very high, everyone enjoyed it and certainly dancing in the marquees in the evening appealed to all ages."

One of the highlights was a marquee specially for a snail circus.

Mr Holland added: "It was full of snails going round different obstacles but there was no harm to the snails and they were all released afterwards!

"You couldn't sell it anybody 'come and see the snail circus' but when you were actually there it was spectacular. It was certainly different and original."

As for it becoming and annual tradition - watch this space, said Mr Holland.