Businesses in Bridport have suffered following a major power cut that disrupted trade across the town.
Power was lost throughout much of Bridport town centre on Saturday, affecting homes, shops, traffic lights and even the folk festival.
The first weekend of the summer holiday is usually one of the busiest but some businesses were forced to close early due to the outage.
National Grid said more than 2,700 customers were affected although about half were back on within a few minutes. The remainder had power restored after about three hours.
One Bridport resident described hearing a ‘dull thud’ in Bucky Doo Square adding that ‘the ground also seemed to shake a little bit when the power went out.'
Read more: Bridport power cut affecting homes, businesses and traffic
A section of Bucky Doo Square has since been dug up for work by National Grid.
Sarah Moore, the owner of Moore Than Tea on West Street had to send staff home and close up early on Saturday.
She said: "We took less than half what we normally do on a Saturday, and it was busier than usual.
"It was a nightmare."
Read more: The west Dorset walk named one of the best in UK
Charlotte Edwards-King, the owner of Refresh Food & Drink, on South Street said: "We had no power for about 40 minutes, but I understand that businesses on West Street were out for longer.
"Being the best day of the year it was an inconvenience."
Mark Webber, owner of Bridport Old Books said: “I lost power, the lights went out and we had to run cash only but we still had customers, but it didn’t really affect us.
“I did notice that the folk festival had to become unplugged, but they just came closer to the audience.”
Clare White of Bella's said: “We were still able to sell food, but we couldn’t sell coffee. Luckily the power came back on. We were also unable to take card payments, but overall it was fine.”
Waitrose on West Street was also impacted.
A spokesperson said: "The outage in our store was caused by a general power outage in the town, which impacted other supermarkets, too.
"Our teams have been working hard to get everything back to usual. We're really sorry for the inconvenience, and grateful for the customers' understanding."
A spokesperson for the National Grid said: "A fault occurred on the high voltage network affecting Bridport just before 1pm on Saturday.
"This led to a loss of supply for 2,798 customers initially but through automated switching processes 1,387 customers had electricity back on within a few minutes.
"By 4pm, all customers were reconnected apart from one who was supplied by a generator later that evening.
"We apologise for the disruption that was caused by a fault on an underground part of our network and thank customers for their patience while it was sorted."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here