The event is very popular, with all the B&Bs and hotels in town booked months ahead, so we opted to stay at static caravan site about 2 miles away and drove in each of the 3 days it was on.
As you might know, Lyme Regis has become famous for it's association with Mary Anning (who transformed our knowledge of marine reptiles) and the 'Jurassic Coast'. Unsurprisingly, the town has a lot of fossil shops, several being very good. So it's worth the trip for that alone. The festival itself lays on an area where you'll find stalls selling fossils and minerals, another where you can meet organisations associated with geology (e.g. the British Antarctic Survey, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth University), plus there are plays and or talks at the local theatre.
The festival is aimed at the both general public and geologists, so there's a lot of stuff to entertain the kids, a number of talks that anyone can follow, and one or two quite technical talks in the programme.
We went along to talks about plastics in our oceans, landslips in the Lyme Regis area, the relationship of birds to dinosaurs, the Antarctic, and how artists depict ancient environments. All very well attended events and extremely interesting.
It costs nothing to attend the festival and most events, including the daytime talks, are free. But you'll probably be tempted into buying a lot of stuff off the stalls which were pretty varied and often had some very nicely priced items.
For future festivals, check out this website www.fossilfestival.co.uk