Photo: Gaz Mather
Now in its eighth year, Manchester’s Parklife festival continues to deliver one of the most eclectic line-ups in the UK, bringing dance, indie, hip hop and grime to Manchester’s famed Heaton Park over a two-day city weekender. Parklife has always been a festival that delivers a cutting-edge programme, and in a weekend which saw the likes of Frank Ocean, Stomzy, Run the Jewels, Jess Glynn, Erik Prydz, London Grammar and Chaka Khan take to the stage, it’s clear the festival has lost none of the innovation which characterised its move to Heaton Park in 2012.
With audiences coming from across the UK for the sell-out weekend, this isn’t a festival with a predominantly local audience, trading solely on Manchester’s iconic musical past. Yet it is still a very ‘Manchester’ festival in terms of its spirit and solidarity. Crowds and artists came together again to remember the victims of the Manchester terror attacks three weeks ago, yet this time it was less of a silence and more of a defiant musical shout, as epitomised by the 1975 on Saturday evening.
Shortly before the band opened their set, they were joined on stage by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Manchester City council officials and members of the emergency services who assisted victims and their families after the recent attack. Frontman Matt Healey asked the crowd to go “fucking mental” instead of offering silence on this occasion. “We didn’t want to do a moment of silence, we wanted to do a moment of noise.” It was a sentiment echoed too by Fatboy Slim in the Hangar, playing a stripped-back acoustic ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ before erupting into a euphoric dance set as, Sex-Pistols style, “Never Mind the Terrorists, this is Manchester,” beamed onto the big screens.
Coming just two days after the UK election which saw a huge 72% of young voters add their voices to a growing call for a Labour government, music and politics inevitably mixed at Parklife – especially after many UK Grime artists came out so vocally urging young people to vote, and to vote for Labour. On Sunday, Stormzy took to the Sounds of the Near Future stage spitting his politically charged bars to a youthful crowd who struggled to pack in. He would have perhaps been better placed on one of the bigger stages, yet one of the joys of seeing the performance in this proximity was the sheer volume and passion of his fans – and the inspiring success he has had in bringing Grime to a youthful new audience. Political and energetic throughout, his socially-charged lyrics chimed with a crowd excited by his desperate calls for change, illustrated well by his performance of ‘Cold’ from Gang Signs and Prayer.
The 1975 also mixed music with political comment, calling for Theresa May to resign with immediate effect. “She needs to stop squatting in no.10 with a coalition that sounds like an STI…I don’t want DUP.” Late festival additions Run the Jewels empathised with the crowd about the political situation mirroring their own, being vocal supporters of Bernie Sanders in America last year. In a far-reaching and thoughtful set which saw an emotive version of ‘Lie, Cheat, Steal’ played, the only drawback was the disappointingly small and quite subdued audience who came to see one of the most engaging hip hop duos play their acclaimed third album, Run the Jewels 3.
One of the biggest festival draws for Parklife was Frank Ocean playing his first UK festival set since 2014. Arriving 40 minutes late with the festival curfew looming ever nearer, many feared Ocean wouldn’t appear, his string of cancelled performances still fresh in fans memories. He later arrived wearing a Brad Pitt t-shirt (apparently Pitt listened to a lot of Frank Ocean after his split from Angelia Jolie) and opened with ‘Solo’ from 2016’s critically acclaimed Blonde album. Giving ‘Solo’ its UK debut, it was a stuttered start. Stopping the performance citing ‘headphone problems’, he continued before stopping again – something that sporadically continued throughout the set.
Whilst many fans savoured what they saw as Ocean’s enigmatic perfectionism, others gave up in blind frustration, leaving mid set. On this occasion, Ocean was seemingly the perfectionist, ensuring staples like ‘Comme Des Garcons’, ‘Good Guy’ and ‘Chanel’ sounded pitch perfect and album-like, despite the latter being continually repeated until Ocean felt it was just right. This was a stripped set with minimal backing and effect making Ocean exposed and therefore perhaps illustrating why he was so keen to deliver with the perfectionism that has characterised his career. Despite the stutters, the set was accomplished, something also helped by the stunning use of art and visuals throughout the show.
Impressive light shows continued in the various dance tents and in the Hangar for a range of sets curated by Now Wave, The Warehouse Project and Spanish dance pioneers Elrow. Highlights across the weekend included Goldie who led a ‘influences’ set, not dissimilar to the excellent one he performed for James Lavelle’s 2014’s curation of Meltdown. Pete Tong, Carl Cox and Eric Ptydz brought Ibiza vibes to a rainy field in Manchester, the latter’s set being one of the most well attended and received of the weekend together with that of DJ Hunee.
Parklife has done well over the years to attract a diverse range of legends for its ‘icon’ slot, with previous performers including Ice Cube, Grace Jones, Public Enemy and a collaboration between Nile Rogers and Johnny Marr. This year saw rap icons A tribe Called Quest and funk legend Chaka Khan appear. Having sold over 70 million albums, Khan delighted by playing upbeat funk hits ‘I’m Every Woman’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody’. The 64-year-old brought some much-needed warmth to the gloomy Manchester skies as heavy downpours started to turn the site into a mud bath.
Manchester music, art and film collective Levelz were another not to let the cool weather and rainclouds dampen spirts, with two members crowd racing each other in inflatable dinghies all the while managing to keep everyone entertained with their unique grime collective. Zara Larson and Jess Glynne continued to keep the party spirit going whilst trio London Grammar gave fans a taster of their acclaimed new album Truth is a Beautiful Thing. Ahead of their Glastonbury performance next week, the new tracks faired well with gorgeous tones and uplifting, cinematic soundscapes being well-received.
Anderson .Paak brought the Sounds of the Near Future Tent to life, combining 60’s northern soul and hip hop with jazz whilst elsewhere Rag n Bone Man and George Ezra appealed to the younger audiences at Parklife with their hit-heavy sets. Skepta made an appearance too with Boy Better Know welcoming him on stage.
Few festivals could combine politics and partying as well as Parklife did this weekend. And whether it was the indie shouts of the 1975 or the grime bars of Stormzy, young people came together to celebrate music and life. And when the musicians spoke their politics, the audience listened – and most of them joined in too.
