Dorchester Arts Festival has been hailed a success after bumper ticket sales.

The 'East meets West' theme for the festival attracted nearly 17,000 visitors over five days, who were treated to Japanese drumming, Chinese opera and Tibetan chants.

Serious theatre appeared on the schedules alongside top stand-up comics in a programme that made money for arts in the area and injected an estimated £77,500 into town businesses.

Festival organisers say the event was even better than the successes of 2002, with 15 per cent more people going to shows and nearly a fifth more artists and performers in the 34 venues.

In a report to Dorchester Town Council, festival director Sharon Hayden said: "2002 was an exceptional festival but in 2004 we managed to excel even further."

She said the fifth Dorchester Festival involved more than 17,600 performers, volunteers and audience members - a figure that represents around a fifth of the population of West Dorset.

"Our economic impact survey found that at least £77,500 was spent in the town over the festival weekend and Dorchester Arts Centre raised £35,000 in addition to the grants from Arts Council England and Dorchester Town Council.

"The festival is a well-run, self-reliant project, which brings a small surplus into the arts centre's accounts, as well as generating a huge amount for the local economy."

Coun Molly Rennie, who was Dorchester mayor during this year's festival, said the event had been fantastic.

She said: "The festival was good news, not just for the arts centre but for the town itself.

"I attended a lot of the different events and the town was just buzzing. It was a real good news story for Dorchester.

"We have to give the arts centre and all the wonderful volunteers lot of credit for bringing a real feelgood factor to the town.

"They have done a lot to put Dorchester firmly on the map for arts tourism," she said.