Festival Review: Parklife - September 2021
Parklife, the festival originally planned for an end of term student party, to what is now the sold-out Heaton Park, jam packed with 80,000 ravers.
With the Parklife line up and dates constantly changing, most ticket buyers were doubtful this year would even go ahead. The festival which saw acts such as Dave and Skepta headline, whilst showing off new talent, with the likes of Lola Young and Will Tramp playing on the Sounds Of The Near Future stage, did in fact go ahead and what a year it was.
From the get-go there was something to dance to - mainly dance tunes with heavy bpm’s. The euphoric feel surrounding me was beautiful, to be encapsulated around that many people, all there to enjoy dancing in a sweaty tent. It is a feeling that can’t be replicated. As Saturday went on, the sun started to shine, and the overall mood was great. As Layton Giordani’s set was coming to an end, the fuelled-up baby faces around me seemed to be unbelievably excited for what was next; Four Tet, Peggy Gou and finally Dave.
Four Tet didn’t hold back, taking to the stage with his hit ‘Break It Off’ featuring PinkPantheress, who has gained a lot of fame thanks to Tik Tok. To not surprise, the crowd loved every second of this set, with help from the laser lights and jam-packed crowd.
One highly anticipated act, Peggy Gou lived up to great expectations. The South-Korean born, Berlin based producer, gracefully entered the stage with a bottle of champagne to her left and performed the most beautiful set. From her original well-known hits like ‘Starry Night’ and ‘Han Jan’ to a newer edit of ‘WAP’. She took the crowd by storm and closed The Valley stage in the best way possible for the end of Saturday.
Headliner, Dave, was one me and many others were unbelievably excited to see. With his newest release ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’ storming to the top of the R&B charts, there were some singles off that album that audiences knew would go down a treat.
Dave closed the festival down, causing tears throughout the audience as he stated Parklife would be the only festival he’d play this year thanks to the support Mancunians have shown him through his career. During his set he managed to get a fan on stage to help complete AJ Tracey’s verses in the song ‘Thiago’. Ending his set by bringing rapper and friend, Stormzy on stage to perform his newest single ‘Clash’.
Sunday seemed to be the busiest of days, a lot of festival goers in the usual outfits but cursed by bad weather, winds and rains. However, this couldn’t stop Heaton Park from making this day successful.
The day saw Bicep, with groups of people watching him, who were too wasted to even think about the bad weather. Little Simz had a huge audience in front of her whilst she effortlessly took the stage by storm. And of course, AJ Tracey and Skepta.
AJ Tracey’s set began with his older songs like ‘Pasta’ then went on to his newest album ‘Flu Game’. AJ was so in touch with the audience, causing massive mosh pits and a multitude of girls on shoulders. His hit tune ‘Rain’ which features Mancunian rapper, Aitch, caused great pleasure amongst the audience. Although hopes and rumours for Aitch to join him were shut down as AJ asked for help during Aitch’s verses.
Bringing the weekend to a close, the Parklife stage welcomed Skepta, alongside many of his friends, JME and BBK. Although the crowd had been non-stop for 48 hours the energy was unbeatable. With tunes like ‘Energy’ featuring Wizkid bringing the crowd into a mosh pit and others like the Tik Tok famous ‘Papi Chulo’ being the sing-along of the day.
As the weekend came to a close it was obvious the festival goers wanted to go home, but the lack of transport options and help from stewards was shocking. Complaints from the weekend surrounded the transport issues as well as how the stages were too close together for audiences to be able to focus on one artist if in the middle of two stages.
After the pandemic and the amount of trouble Manchester’s hospitality section have suffered, it was obvious this new age of festival goers needed this weekend before the end of summer.
Words and Photography by Lucy Holden