'We know Jack would love it': Friends get ready for bigger festival in memory of friend at Wolverhampton pub

It is set to be an emotional day for all involved as the second music and arts festival in memory of a dear-departed friend takes place.

The New Hampton in Wolverhampton will be full of music and art lovers, all coming together to enjoy WACKFEST 2, all in honour of Jack Wallbank, who passed away in 2025 due to struggles with mental health.

The festival on September 5 will see bands playing across the different levels of the pub, as well as local artists, spoken word performances, fundraising activities and community stalls, all centred around remembering Jack and continuing the conversation about mental health.

It follows on from a smaller scale festival in 2025, with Johnny Maguire, who has been organising the festival alongside Ross Law and a host of other friends of Jack, speaking about the history of WACKFEST and how it happened.

He said: “Last year, unfortunately, we lost Jack, who had had a long struggle with his mental health and went missing, so we all went out looking for him every night, but we got the sad news that he’s been found and it wasn’t the news we were hoping for.

“I put out a message on the internet to say that we should have a meet up at West Park to honour him, talk and grieve together, because it was such an upsetting time and we needed to come together as a community.

“I then spoke to Ross about it at a local bar, as we’d been friends with Jack at different times, and he said we should do something for Jack as he would have loved it, so that was how it was born.

“We only had two weeks notice, but we spoke to Pria at the New Hampton and she said we could do it there, so we decided to do it and managed to raise £3,000 for charity and also do something positive in his memory.”

Mr Maguire said the 2025 event had been an event of sadness, giving people a chance to come together and grieve, but said he wanted 2026’s event to be positive and a way to celebrate Jack’s life and do some good.

The event will feature acoustic acts and bands, as well as graffiti artists, food vendors, pop up inflatable assault courses and wave machines and stalls, including one from the Service User Involvement Team (SUIT), who benefitted from the funds raised in 2025.

Christiane Jenkins works for SUIT and said she had known Jack Wallbank from his time using its services, so said it was great to come together as a community and celebrate his life.

She said: “We’re all people with lived experience of addiction, like myself being 10 years in recovery, and being in the environment of a festival in a pub, for me, is part of the legacy that Jack had as we were all close to him at SUIT.

“We adored him and I worked creatively with him as he was incredibly talented, plus part of what I do for people in recovery is work with them creatively, so when the guys came together after Jack’s passing for such a beautifully positive event, it really showed you can have a positive outcome.

“We’ll be here on the day with the stall, as will ReThink Mental Illness, and I hope that our visibility here will encourage people to have open conversations about their struggles because we’ve all been there and it’s good to talk.”

New Hampton landlady Pria Middleton said she and the community at the pub were passionate about mental health and getting people talking and said it was an honour to be able to host WACKFEST again.

She said: “Jack was someone who used to come into the pub and a lot of his friends are here, so after his loss, we wanted to do something that was important to him and respected his memory and invited everyone to thing that you don’t have to go through this alone.

“That’s something I’ve always been passionate about, so it’s a real honour to be able to bring this to my business as well and hopefully create a good community around it.

“We’ve held it before and we hope to do it many, many more times in the future.”

Mr Maguire said that while Jack might have hated all the attention, he knew he’d secretly enjoy it and spoke about the significance of the event.

He said: “Just remember, you are not on your own, and it doesn’t matter if I know you or don’t know you because as far as I’m concerned, WACKFEST means we are all friends, family, brothers and sisters.

“What we want to do is just do something positive and I’m not the only person behind the running of this as there’s Ross, who has booked all the bands, and people like Charlotte and Bryony and my wife Jessica, who have all been part of the journey.

“It’s all about you and us coming together and knowing that we don’t want to feel how we felt before and anything we can do, no matter how small or how much the needle moves, will make it a success.”