Art, Films and Television

All 3,000 tickets were sold at this year's event held at Gilcombe Farm near Bruton.

Katherine Ritchie, press officer for Sunrise said: "It has been a roaring success, the weather has been amazing, everything has run really smoothly.

"It's what we've been aspiring to for all these years and we feel that we have actually achieved that. Everybody is feeling really high and really happy."

In 2008, the event at Tintinhull was called off at the last minute because of flash flooding, which caused hundreds to be stranded, with others turned away on arrival at the main gate just hours after the festival opened.

'Fantastic view'

This year the organisers took a different approach by selling a high proportion of tickets in advance through the website and by keeping the location secret until nearer the date of the festival so fewer people would turn up at the gates without tickets.

There is a strong eco-focus at Sunrise

They also changed location moving from Bearly Farm, Tintinhull to an organic farm close to Bruton on higher ground with a lower risk of flooding.

Stuart Andrews, a jewellry trader, said: "We're on the brow of a hill here, it's a fantastic view, there's some hills in the distance, with King Arthur's tower and beyond that some woods.

"It's a very pretty site, for one it's not a flood plain, we are a lot higher up, it's a beautiful site."

One of the most popular activities was a planetarium complete with a 16-inch telescope for star-gazers.

Nick who runs the planetarium said: "Sunworshippers was dreamt up a number of years ago, I've always had a relationship with astronomy and a feeling that I wanted to do something with it, but unfortunately I am a mathematically blind visual learner so I kept hitting this glass ceiling of understanding.

"There must be thousands of people who must be like me - you've got a love for the universe, you've got a love of the stars in the sky and there seems to be a them and us attitude about astronomy. Sunworshippers is essentially about wiping out that barrier."

'Really crucial'

Another highlight was an ethical fashion show, as well as live music every night of the event.

"In music terms the Chai Wallah stage was such a beautiful space - they've got an amazing white canvas space with lots of beautiful incense and listening to Back of Beyond (another band) last night, the atmosphere was great, really amazing," said Katherine.

This year the organisers chose to split the event across two dates.

Farm owner, Andy Portch said: "It went really well, obviously the weather was really crucial for any festival but with the weather so good it obviously helped. It was a good atmosphere with a lot of nice people, the organisers really knew what they were doing."

His biggest concern was the weather and potential damage to the fields his 140 cows normally graze on.

"From my point of view as a farmer, I see it as another cash crop; I've used the field for something else .It's no different from experimenting with different crops, they go wrong if there's a drought, or flood, or get hit by the frost so everything's a risk in farming and that's how I've looked at this."

'Intimate atmosphere'

The event was scaled down from the 2008 event and there is renewed enthusiasm to keep the festival on a small scale.

"Having spoken to a lot of people around site and just seeing just how much they enjoyed that intimate atmosphere I just really feel that suits the Sunrise ethos and that's what we're all about.

"It's partly because it has been smaller it's worked so well but we haven't finalised anything yet. We might go a bit bigger, but I don't think we're ever going to be huge," said Katherine.

The second Sunrise event called 'Off-Grid' will be held at the same site on 20 - 23 August 2009 with a greater emphasis on green energy and creative workshops with a strong family focus.