It rounded off another successful presentation of free entertainment in the town and left Festival Too chairman Alan Taylor praising the tremendous support from festival-goers and from West Norfolk Council and other sponsors.

He said: "It's my last year as chairman and it was a proud day for me when I saw the crowd on Saturday. They were an unbelievably fantastic crowd.

"People were well behaved and had come out purely to have a good time. They were dancing in the road.

"It was a fantastic family atmosphere, with a mixed crowd and a lot of younger people there, and that's what it is all about."

Police Supt Nick Dean said the event was all really good-humoured and everyone behaved, with only two arrests for minor offences.

Atomic Kitten fans had travelled from as far away as London, Bristol and Newcastle for the gig, staying overnight in local hotels, and some had claimed their places in front of the stage by 1pm on Saturday.

Even a downpour on Friday evening during warm-up act Pentasonic's impressive performance failed to dampen the enthusiasm of up to 2,000 dedicated festival-goers, who resolutely defied the rain under a sea of umbrellas to watch Dublin's saviours of soul, The Commitments, in action.

This year's innovation of a bucket collection for donations paid dividends, bringing in about £5,000. "That's double what we earned from the old raffle – but we needed the money because we spent more on evening and daytime entertainment this year," Mr Taylor said.

"We took a risk but the people of Lynn and West Norfolk have made sure it was a success.

"Things don't get any cheaper but people were putting their hands in their pockets and helping us out.

"Festival Too has been going 23 years and we want to see it go another 23 years. The search for sponsors starts now!"

Giant souvenir photo: Page 3 of today's paper; Festival Too and Festival reviews: Page 4