This week for Looking Back we are taking our hat off and looking at a popular festival in Bridport.

Bridport Hat Festival has become a popular date in the diary of Bridport residents, as it invites the people to get creative and have fun.

The festival celebrates Bridport's Hat Heritage. When the trade routes to France were cut off during the French Revolution, lots of census data for people living in North and West Allington revealed that people were listed as 'hat weavers' or 'flax doily weavers'.

The industry died out after the revolution, but is now growing again in this country.

The event itself was organised by Roger Snooks and a group of five or six others, who wanted to prove that hats were not 'dead'.

Roger Snooks, owner of T Snooks Hatters and Outfitters shop and founder of the Bridport Hat Festival, said: "People kept saying that the hat is no more.

"John F Kennedy (JFK) was the demise of the hat for gents.

"When president of the United States of America, he was the first president to never wear a hat, and hat wearing dropped.

"Twenty years ago, people were saying hats were finished, but they aren't.

"We wanted to make sure it wasn't lost, and thought about how we would love to have some sort of festival where people could get together with friends."

The original idea of the festival was to involve hats and jazz, but ended up focusing solely on hats.

The first festival took place in Bridport in 2010, and has raised thousands of pounds for head-related charities.

Roger said: "It was a lot of hard work, and none of us knew if the concept would work.

"Once we started to put it together, we got to know more about what we we were doing."

Since the first festival in 2010, which saw 4,000 people attend, organisers now see around 15,000-16,000 attend the yearly event.

Roger said: "It's a ridiculous idea but the people of Bridport love it."

Liz Sporne, who works at Roger's shop and helps to organise the festival, added: "It's so easy to take part, you just have to stick on a hat."

The event has seen everyone across the town get involved, including some of the town's furry residents, with dogs getting involved in wearing a hat.

Roger noted how he had seen pictures of residents in nursing homes participating in the fun.

Roger said: "The thing that pleases me is the volume of trade in Bridport on the day.

"Money is spent and the festival brings so much in, and not just to Bridport, but to the surrounding areas."

Liz added: "The restaurants, pubs and hotels all do well.

"The event raises the profile of Bridport, and people come back again."

The festival also has international attention, and in 2012, Nigerian designer Matthew Eluwande's hat won the top prize a week after winning in Paris.

Customers of Roger's also told him that on a trip to California, they visited a hat shop, and when they told the owner where they were from, he recognised Bridport from the Hat Festival.

This year the build-up to the festival started on Tuesday, August 28 with a quiz and raffle at The Ropemakers.

On Wednesday, August 29, Bridport Museum hosted a family hat making event, and on Thursday, August 30, the Bridport and West Dorset Club hosted the annual hat auction, which raised money for Brain Tumour Research, and the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust.

Friday saw live music take place at The Ropemakers for the festival, before the main event on Saturday, September 1.

To find out more about the Hat Festival, you can visit bridporthatfest.org