THOUSANDS packed into an Oxford park to celebrate the fifth annual festival run entirely by volunteers.

The first Flofest was held in 2013 and was organised by people living in and around the Florence Park community, and organisers say this year's gathering on Saturday saw the best attendance yet.

Oxford Mail:

All of Flofest’s organisers and volunteers live within walking distance from the park and most of those involved in catering and entertaining visitors also live nearby.

One of the event’s organisers, Alan Brown, said the introduction of a new ticketed music event, 'Glofest', in the evening had been a success:

He said: “It’s been the busiest one yet. We’ve had at least 5,000 people and ticket sales for Glofest went really well.”

He added: “We have been going since 2013 and it’s a whole community effort from people from Florence Park and bringing their skills together with a community festival.

"There are getting on for 100 local performers and 20 other bands and lots of other performers.”

The community party ran into the evening with the first ever Glofest featuring bands and DJs.

Ran Kan Kan, Dead Beat Apostles, Flights of Helios, Zaia, Audacity Live and DJ James Ussher were on the bill.

The event was introduced to drive extra investment into Flofest. All activities, including the 'Dub Pub', a part of the park marked off for people to celebrate roots and reggae music, were free until the evening entertainment.

Oxford Mail:

That included popular pony rides – the queues for which were long.

The climbing wall was also a leading attraction, with queues as children lined up for their turn.

Streets around the park were packed because of people from further afield parking their cars to get to the event, which is looking to emulate other free music festivals such as the Riverside Festival in Charlbury.

The East Oxford park is five minutes walk away from Cowley Road and Templars Square.

Florence Park was opened in 1934 and derived its name after the land was donated to the city of Oxford by city councillor F.E. Moss in memory of his sister, Florence.

In its deeds it says the land must always remain a park.

Other groups who took part in Flofest included Littlemore RFC, who attended and set up a rugby skills course.

Other groups included the Local Environment Action in Florence Park area group. Visitors could make a model swift and get information about swift boxes and how to look after hedgehogs.

For more information about Flofest and how to get involved in next year’s activities visit its website, www.flofest.uk