ROCKERS in Box enjoyed more than nine hours of music under the bank holiday sun as the annual Box Rocks festival returned for its 23rd year.

The annual event, which is hosted by The Queen's Head in one of Wiltshire's smallest villages brought in sell out crowds for the festival which raised £3,645.98 for the Forever Friends Appeal's RUH Cancer Care campaign.

Organiser Dean Creighton said: "It was absolutely fantastic. I was just running around all night but it was a great show and the weather was great! If the sun comes out, then everyone comes out so the charity were really happy. "

Bands Caravaggio, All Ears Avow, Flower Pot and Phoenix Club graced the stage at The Queen's Head along with Hip Route, The Bohos and the Hat Club while The Corporations played a tribute to the late David Bowie and Prince.

Mr Creighton said: "The bands were really good and I have already got the bands booked for next year and they are absolutely fantastic bands who I really like and who I think other people will like. It is all about giving them a good professional stage for up and coming bands in the area which is what we try to do."

In previous years, the event which is usually a sell-out has raised more than £28,000 for units and wards at Bath Royal United Hospital and the pub landlord is delighted that they have smashed this year's target.

He said: We emptied the charity bottle on the bar this morning and it had £510 in it alone so I knew we would smash the target and bring our total fundraising figure up to £30,000.

"It was quite a sad day too as in the previous 22 years, we had a gentleman called Gordon Hall who sat on the door every year with the charity staff helping them collect the money and he would always be the person at the end of the night opening the bar bottle and counting how much was in there. Sadly Gordon passed away earlier this year so we gave him a shout out and a big round of applause."

Although the show is over for another year, the staff the Queen's Head are still packing up and preparing for another bank holiday bonanza in the near future.