Opening its doors for the first time in over two years, the festival of modern culture Parklife returned in a big way over the weekend.
160,000 music fans came to Heaton Park for the weekend festival, showing live events are very much back with a bang in Manchester.
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But the party started early, thanks to a homecoming show by New Order, their first hometown gig in four years.
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With support from Hot Chip and Working Men’s Club, it was one of their biggest shows of the past 20 years.
A crowd of 35,000 New Order fans flocked to see the band’s biggest headline show, an older audience than the usual Parklife crowd but no less enthusiastic.
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“It’s been a horrible couple of years. Let’s have a party and try and make up for it,” said Bernard Sumner, kicking off a show which featured old and newer material alongside dazzling lasers and graphics on the big screens.
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The Friday night gig started the weekend in style, before Parklife saw 80,000 fans each day celebrate the return of live music and festivals.
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On Saturday, in a UK festival exclusive performance, Dave headlined his first major UK festival with an unstoppable performance on the Parklife Stage – capturing why he sits at the very pinnacle of UK music right now.
After a jaw-dropping headline set, spanning across his two acclaimed studio albums to date, Dave brought out very special guest Stormzy to join him on closing track Clash.
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Stormzy’s special guest appearance wasn’t even the first super special surprise at the festival – with global icon Burna Boy bringing something special to the Parklife Stage as the sun began to set on Heaton Park on Saturday night.
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Appearing in his own custom Manchester United shirt, Burna took things to legendary levels when he was joined on-stage by Manchester United’s own Paul Pogba, fresh from a top-draw performance of his own earlier in the day on the football pitch.
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Another 80,000 rapturous fans came to Heaton Park on Sunday for another unrivalled festival day full of the biggest and best in the game right now.
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Sets included Skepta, Disclosure, Migos, AJ Tracey, Jamie xx, Bicep (Live), D-Block Europe, Eric Prydz, Slowthai, Mabel, Little Simz, KSI and many more.
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“Today has been 2 years in the making,” tweeted Parklife founder Sacha Lord on Saturday.
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“We’ve done everything we can, through the hardest, most challenging of times to deliver you something special.”
And Manchester certainly appreciated it.
Roll on Parklife 2022.