Olly Murs, Louise, Sophie Ellis-Bexter and Matt Goss among the stars who turn out at Englefield House for second Flackstock, in memory of Caroline Flack

Record crowds joined the family and friends of TV presenter Caroline Flack at a festival in her honour this week.

Flackstock returned to Englefield House for its second year on Monday, with the aims of having fun and raising money for mental health charities.

The presenter died by suicide in February 2020 at the age of 40 and her family and friends said the festival celebrated her life with a day of music, dancing and comedy.

Stars including Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Feeling, Matt Goss, Jason Manford, Louise Redknapp, Dea Matrona and JP Cooper all took the stage throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

All money raised by the event will go to charities Mind, Samaritans, Choose Love and the West Berkshire-based Charlie Waller Trust. Last year’s event saw each of the charities receive £85,000 after the inaugural event.

There was a special game of ‘Don’t Show Keith Your Teeth’, with Keith Lemon, and stage appearances from Matt Richardson and Charlie Mackesy, as well as celebrity DJ sets from All Saints star Mel Blatt, Denise Van Outen and Steve Proud.

Caroline’s mother Christine, who organised the event along with her sister Jody and friends Natalie Pinkham, Dawn O’Porter, Anna Blue, Sarah Tyekiff, Liz Holmwood and Leigh and Jill Francis said: “Last year was bigger and more successful than we could have ever imagined.

“Raising so much money for these brilliant charities was exactly what we’d hoped for – providing a legacy for my Caroline. As I’ve said before, Carrie was never more herself or happier than at a music festival with her sister and her friends.

“It’s just incredible to have the support of these excellent acts for a second time.

“A big thank you to everyone involved for all their hard work.

“My family are so proud that so many people who knew Carrie loved her so very much.”

Clare Stafford, CEO of the West Berkshire-based Charlie Waller Trust, which was set up by the Waller family after Charlie Waller took his own life, said: “These events are just brilliant for us as we’re not a household name charity. It will get our profile raised.

“The amazing work we do to support children and young people’s mental health, it’s so important and we have to raise money to do that, so this kind of event is fantastic for us.

“Last year, the first year of Flackstock, we all shared the proceeds and people were incredibly generous. It was £85,000 for each of the charities, which is an incredible amount, we can do so much with that.”

In the crowds people dressed in shorts and wellies, with Choose Love t-shirts and glitter on their faces, sat on deck chairs and hay bales and danced and sang the night away – even a drop of rain towards the end couldn’t dampen spirits.

There was a giant portrait of Caroline on a wall for everyone to leave their own messages on – many simply said 'be kind'.

TV presenter and wheelchair basketball player, Ade Adepitan, who was a close friend of Caroline’s after they started in the TV industry at the same time and shared an agent, said: “It’s incredible; emotional as Caroline is a really good friend.

“I know she would just be overwhelmed by all this love out here. This is so much positivity and if anything good could have come out of what happened to her, it’s this.

“To be able to help millions of people and get us talking I think is brilliant.”

Former British heptathlete Dame Denise Lewis, who took to the stage during the event, told the Newbury Weekly News that it was a “fantastic” event for the local community.

“The wider message is the love and kindness that we share and that should be our commonality and our meeting point,” she added. “It’s lovely to see music, health and wellbeing being amplified at such a great festival.”

In the crowd we met Simran, from Birmingham.

She said: “It’s a really fun day, I’m really enjoying it, it’s fantastic.

“I lost someone from my family to suicide so it’s really important to just celebrate and be happy.”

Sian, from Camberley, said: “I was a massive fan of Caroline and a few of my family members have got mental health issues, so this is just a great cause.”

Her friend Michelle added: “It’s brilliant and for a really good cause.

“I was a fan of Caroline and when I heard they were doing this I wanted to come and support everybody and we’re having great fun.”