THE gloomy weather couldn’t put off Lyme Regis’s buskers as the seafront was filled with the sounds of music at the weekend.

B Sharp were staging their annual busking festival as part of this year’s ArtsFest and musicians were busy in the town performing and fundraising.

Pianists took centre stage on the popular Play Me Piano in the seafront shelters and were accompanied by the charity’s inaugural Play Me Drums, as crowds lined the seafront to see what Lyme’s young musicians had to offer.

Music leader Pete Wild said it had been a ‘beautiful’ summer for the charity.

He said: “We started a beautiful summer of music with B Sharp’s Big Mix and now we have finished it with our annual Busking Festival and Play Me Piano and Play Me Drums.

“The idea of the Play Me instruments is to encourage passers-by to have a go. There were performances from amateurs and professional musicians of all ages and also quite a few spontaneous jams.”

Mayor Sally Holman was one of the spontaneous jammers as she took time out of the twinning celebrations between Lyme Regis and Barfleur to join in the fun playing on the drum set.

As well as busking, a group of 14 young musicians played at the opening ceremony of the ArtsFest on Friday night and Mr Wild praised the commitment of those who contribute to the charity.

Mr Wild said: “We are very lucky to have a core group of more experienced trainee young leaders we have worked with for some time now, along with a couple of new faces that have fitted in instantly.

“Their commitment to producing great music without a huge amount of rehearsal time is a testament to all the hard work they have put in over the last few years.

“These are the young people that will help us take B Sharp through another exciting year of sessions and events.”

The music was stopped briefly when B Sharp received a donation from the family of the charity’s former patron Jack Marshall, who died earlier this year, aged 99.

The family donated £2,500 to set up the Jack Marshall Mem-orial Fund.

B Sharp director Fran Williams said: “We are very grateful to the Marshall family.

“This is a tremendous start to B Sharp’s local fundraising campaign to enable us to go on making a difference to so many children and young people.”

Plans are already under way for next year’s Busking Festival and Big Mix 2 one-day festival, as well as choral and instrumental ensemble projects with B Sharp collaborator John K Miles.