AN ANNUAL festival which encourages people to support local businesses needs the support of locals in Bridport to make it happen this year.

Fiver Fest, a national initiative which promotes spending your money in local shops and businesses, runs from Saturday, June 12 until Saturday, June 26.

This year's Fiver Fest would be the fifth to take place in Bridport – but Totally Locally Bridport, the organisation that runs the town's version of the event, needs the help of the public if it is to go ahead this year.

Due to the constraints of lockdowns and the majority of team members running essential businesses, the Totally Locally Bridport team is down to a skeleton crew. New team members are needed to develop Totally Locally Bridport and introduce more marketing campaigns facilitated by the Totally Locally HQ.

Kim Squirrell of Totally Locally Bridport said: "All the members of our team are small business owners and busy at the best of times, but most of them have been even busier during the pandemic.

"We’d love to join the National Fiver Fest again but we need more people willing to invest time in making it happen."

The Fiver Fest initiative is based on the Totally Locally concept that if every adult in Bridport spent £5 a week at their local independent shops or businesses, rather than online or at major chain stories, that would equate to £4.6 million going directly into the local economy.

More than 100 independent businesses in Bridport have taken part over the last four campaigns and the Totally Locally team says it has received overwhelmingly positive responses from shoppers.

Fiver Fest tasks for those who are interesting in joining the team include distributing posters, supporting business owners, posting to social media, admin and decision making.

The Totally Locally Bridport team meet on Thursday evenings at 6pm, currently on Zoom.

If you are interested in joining the team, email totallylocallybridport@gmail.com