Thousands of visitors packed in to see the ever-colourful Portishead Flower Show at the weekend.

The two-day festival was blessed with good weather and saw competitors take part in dozens of classes.

As well as the traditional floral categories, there was also everything from weird vegetable animals and scary scarecrows on show too.

The event was as ever organised by Portishead Horticultural Society and the group was delighted by a huge turnout, with about 1,800 attending on Saturday and Sunday.

Secretary Linda Hodgetts said: “The show went really well.

“We had more entries than normal, which is great.”

In total, there were 1,692 entries from the 330 exhibitors, including a huge turnout for the photography competition, which presented judges with a headache, albeit a pleasant one.

The festival is more than simply a flower show however and the arena provided great entertainment over the weekend, including live music from The Somerset Paddies and Welsh band The Hipcats, which played some of Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits.

Linda said: “The arena events went down really well.

“We had meerkats, The Rock Project was there and it promoted lessons for children and children were able to have a go with guitars and keyboards too.

“It was so nice to see so many children in the field.

“The children’s (competition) entries were definitely up and a couple of contributors to The Rock Project, Ella and Harry Howes aged eight and 10, did a song and it was lovely.”

This year’s flower show, at the Clapton Lane showground, was opened by carnival co-organiser Wendy Watkins, while carnival princesses handed out cups to the victorious competitors.

While the society’s hard work ensured the festival was a success, it was indebted to some good fortune too.

Linda said they were ‘so lucky’ with the weather, especially given the large amount of rain that fell on Monday.