Parklife — Rain? You'll need more than that to stop us

Rain? You'll need more than that to stop us

Manchester and rain stereotypically go hand in hand, so it was no surprise that Parklife suffered from persistent downpours. Add to that the fact that large amounts of people were shuffling and dancing their way across the huge site and you’re left with a pretty muddy affair, but did anyone complain? You bet they didn’t, in fact the rain and mud seemed to only enhance the atmosphere as everyone donned their wellies and rain macs and got the party going, with some going even further by deciding to breakdance in the mud with not a care in the world – it’s true, we saw it!

Part of Parklife’s appeal is the wonderfully varied array of artists, where one can bounce along to the high tempo rock jams of North London’s Wolf Alice before moving on to another stage and nodding your head to some West Coast gangsta rap performed by the legendary Ice Cube. This is all a part of what makes Parklife almost like a festival version of Skittles - there’s a flavour for everyone!

An impressive 150,000 people descended upon Manchester’s Heaton Park over the two days to “taste the rainbow” and boy, did the rainbow taste good. The food also tasted great with options ranging from Shawarma to Dinky Donuts, and when you weren’t stuffing your face with food to fuel your dancing there were even a few funfair rides to enjoy. However, the main attraction was, and will always be, the music.

This year’s music was set across eight stages, with a few impressive new additions, not least the open-aired Paradise tent with its claws coming out from around the stage almost resembling a giant crab. Such interesting additions only serve as a testament to the increasing popularity of the festival and creative nature of the Warehouse Project, who continue to do a stellar job of organising the event.

On the Saturday we took in fantastic performances by the aforementioned Ice Cube and Wolf Alice, in addition to Kano and London based trio Years and Years, who were incredible and had the crowd waving their hands and singing in unison.

The big dilemma came with us having to decide where we would end our night - with acts such as The Chemical Brothers, Bastille and Chase & Status all headlining the various stages. Eventually we plumped with a favourite of ours in Kaytranada over at the Now Wave tent. Kaytranada, who recently dropped his long awaited debut studio album 99.9%, had the tightly packed tent bobbing and weaving to both new and old favourites as he produced one of his best ever sets, the perfect way to close the show.

We were back - excitedly bright eyed and bushy tailed - for round two on Sunday where we caught Bristol’s Julio Bashmore, who had the crowd in his hands as he produced an amazing set, before moving on to see David Rodigan blast some reggae jams on a stage aptly named after the man himself.

Busta Rhymes later had us “breaking our necks” to some of his biggest hits both old and new before we moved on to our final destination of the night – the Main Stage, where we caught dance music queen Annie Mac and of course the grand finale where, as expected, Major Lazer did not disappoint.

With confetti spraying everywhere, a light show raging and dancers on stage whilst track after track of head banging beats were performed, Major Lazer created an atmosphere that would be hard for any festival to rival and provided a fitting electrifying crescendo to Parklife’s seventh incarnation.

Heaton Park may be left a muddy mess, but the individuals whose dance moves helped to cause this will have left smiling and reminiscing about their favourite musical moments at yet another brilliantly organised Parklife festival – kudos to WHP - and with limited numbers of early bird tickets already available for next year’s Parklife, we say bring on 2017!

Get your tickets here!

By Arlun Grant