Our Top 5 Picks For Parklife Festival
Manchester’s biggest music festival returns to Heaton Park Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of June 2023.
Parklife is the UK’s largest metropolitan music festival and takes place at heaton park in Manchester. The urban festival is from the same team behind the Warehouse Project, and first began in 2010 in its former Rusholme location before moving to Heaton Park in 2012. Over the decade since the first event, Parklife has welcomed performances from music legends such as Mark Ronson, Wu Tang Clan, Disclosure, George Ezra, The Chemical Brothers, Snoop Dogg, The XX, Lliam Gallagher, N.E.R.D, The 1975, Foals and many more. Below are our top 5 picks for the weekend!
The Prodigy
The Prodigy has long been revered as one of the most influential and groundbreaking acts in the electronic music scene. Their unique blend of high-energy beats, aggressive vocals, and relentless stage presence has rocked fans worldwide. This rare opportunity to experience their explosive live show is not to be missed. Keep an ear out for iconic hits, “Firestarter,” “Breathe,” and “Smack My Bitch Up.” It’s a rare chance to witness the pioneers of the big beat genre in their element, leaving an indelible mark on the music history of the UK and beyond.
Fred Again
Whether you know Fred again or not, you are bound to have heard his music before. Prior to lockdown, under his real name, Fred Gibson, he produced a multitude of songs for artists like Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Burna Boy and Aitch. However since 2020 and launching a solo career as Fred again, you are more likely to have seen clips of the 29-year-old musician DJing over a set of decks, with thousands of people dancing around him under his spell. On Sunday night, he did just that, closing out Coachella alongside Skrillex and Four Tet to almost 100,000 fans.
Despite having never been on tour before his sold-out Boiler Room set in July 2022, it quickly became one of the platform’s most viewed performances. And when he did finally go on tour in October, he sold out his 15 date world tour in minutes, packing out Brixton’s O2 academy for three nights in a row. If you haven’t seen him live, you’ll have seen clips of him on TikTok and your mates will have mentioned him the pub. But where did Fred again suddenly come from?
Hannah Laing
Having cemented herself as a true maven of the peak time banger via a series of high-energy features on the likes of Solardo’s Sola, Patrick Topping’s TRICK, Jax Jones Presents and Spinnin’ Records, a succession of sell-out club nights under her own outfit, plus shows at the likes of DC10 and Warehouse Project — it’s hard to look away from Dundee born-and-raised DJ and producer Hannah Laing’s unstoppable trajectory to the top.
Carl Cox Hybrid Live
The king of underground dance music Carl Cox is bringing his Hybrid Live show to Parklife on Sunday. Even the most casual of electronic music fans know about Cox. With a career spanning over 40 years in the industry, he is widely considered one of the founding fathers of the British dance scene. Residencies in Space Ibiza, as well as performing alongside a hand selected pick of DJs at his stage at the Ultra Music festival helped the British DJ shoot to stardom in the 2000s.
Fast forward to the present day, and Cox recently released his first album in 10 years, Electronic Generations. In terms of performance, he is now looking to deliver something more to fans to remind them why he still does it – this is where Hybrid Live comes in. His Hybrid Live shows allow him to combine the DJing that fans have come to expect, alongside various elements of on-the-fly improvised live performance, making for a pulsating and exciting show where you never know what is coming next.
Nia Archives
Nia Archives’ rise as one of jungle’s most talked about producers has been nothing short of meteoric. It was only April 2021 that she released her debut EP Headz Gone West, and already she has collaborated with Congo Natty on a remix of Lava La Rue’s “Magpie” and received airplay from Elton John. In 2022 her neo-nostalgia take on breakbeat won her Best Producer at the NME Awards – a watershed moment for both her career and jungle’s continued resurgence. Essential viewing
