Exclusive: The Warehouse Project leaves Store Street home, but founder Sacha says fans should rejoice not mourn

Written by Ana Iliescu
Last updated 6 years ago
City of Manchester, Music, Nightlife, People

The Warehouse Project will soon bid a final farewell to its famous Store Street venue following WHP18.

But in an exclusive interview with I Love MCR, Warehouse Project and Parklife founder Sacha Lord says fans should rejoice rather than mourn.

The decision to leave Store Street hasn’t been forced in any way, but came naturally from the founders’ deep-rooted desire to constantly evolve, he explains.

“Everyone on social media presumes we had to leave, but that’s not the case at all,” says Sacha, who has recently been named Greater Manchester’s first ever night-time economy adviser.

Goodbye my friend. You will always be our spiritual home. WHP18 The End Of Store Street.
The full WHP18 Season revealed tomorrow at 9am https://t.co/9MxCmWLiWY #TheEndOfStoreStreet #Whp18 pic.twitter.com/rkWHQ60j9S

— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) July 24, 2018

“That whole area is being redeveloped, and quite frankly possibly in four or five years time we may have had to move on, but we took this decision last year,” he reveals.

“We’ve been there since 2007 and year on year we tried to improve things and better ourselves. My business partner Sam and I wanted to make things more exciting for the customers all the time.

“Then we basically decided we can’t think of anything that would make it better next year.”

The Warehouse Project has never been meant to sit still, he explains, and although Store Street will always remain their “spiritual home”, they are now excited to find “new places to dance”.

“We’ve been doing this for 12 years,” says Sacha. “We started at Boddington’s, we went to Store Street, we did Victoria Warehouse, we did things at the Albert Hall, we did Granada Studios.

“So we’re moving around all the time, and we just think it’s time to change things. Now we’ll rip up the rule book and come back next year with something even more exciting.”

But change is difficult for many people, and Sacha admits that his timeline has been filled with sad faces following the announcement on Twitter.

“I’ve never seen so many little sad emojis, you know, the little faces with tears coming out from both sides?” he says.

“People are saying they’re sad and that it’s such a shame because it was their favourite venue, but I just don’t see it that way.

“We’ve had some amazing years there and everybody was part of that experience, and we took it to the best we possibly could. Now people need to trust us with the new chapter.”

Despite the venue change, their heart will always remain in Store Street, which became known globally thanks to the Warehouse Project raves.

“In 2007 if you wanted to get a cab in Manchester and you’d tell the taxi driver to take you to Store Street, they wouldn’t have a clue where that was,” he says. “It was this back street somewhere.

“Now Store Street is a world famous street, and actually the council have stopped putting up signs because people keep stealing them. For that reason, it will always be our home.”

So can he give us a clue about where they’re going to next?

“Absolutely not!” he laughs. “But nice try.”

WHP18 will be revealed tomorrow at 9am.

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