Parklife 2018 delivers an epic weekend for Manchester crowd

The aim of the game is to stay on top and Manchester‘s iconic festival proved its worth delivering an absolute beauty of a weekend. With Parklife Festival returning once again to Heaton Park for their yearly summer season proceedings, it was no surprise that tickets sold out right before the opening day of the city’s most talked about music event. 80,000 guests in tow across the weekend gathered in the Northern municipal park for what was an epic feast of the finest music producers, artists, bands and live acts the music industry had on offer.

As the anticipation of Parklife slowly built and built in the weeks and days leading up to the event, the festival finally arrived on a ferociously sunny day in Manchester and in swept the revelers ready to party in the park. Having capped off a brilliant 2017 edition of the festival, Parklife ensured this year’s affair would be the best yet. Production values ramped up, pyrotechnics at the ready, and a mouth-watering line-up providing the best music added to the recipe for the makings of a stand-out festival.

Unique in its own right, the festival showed once again its diverse range of music genres that Parklife had on offer in a stacked line-up across the two days. At any moment you could be enjoying the intense crowds of a Giggs or ASAP Rocky performance, get completely lost in the musical genius of Solomun, Nina Kraviz, and My Nu Leng, or simply be belting your heart out among a passionate crowd to the festival’s headliners such as The XX and Liam Gallagher. With no two acts the same there was someone for everyone in Heaton Park.

This year’s festival saw the return of the ‘Palm House’, one of Parklife’s most hyped arenas comprised of its shrouded greenery and see-through structure. Along with it, the Palm House provided a jaw-dropping line up with huge names such as The Black Madonna, Mall Grab, Honey Dijon, Four Tet, and Sunday headliner Jamie XX. One of the standout artists in the arena was techno queen Nina Kraviz who stunned the Palm House with her outstanding mixing skills providing an energetic performance. On Saturday both Jackmaster and Peggy Gou entertained the Parklife crowd keeping the musical vibes to a high standard.

It was a music brand takeover at ‘The Temple’ stage with both Circo Loco and Manchester’s own WHP & Kaluki taking over each day. During the Saturday the festival saw heavyweights Solardo bring the heat while a gargantuan set from Jamie Jones B2B Seth Troxler B2B The Martinez Brothers spun a staggering four hour set to house fanatics. Of course, Kaluki made sure the Sunday went down at treat with a stellar line up of DJ juggernauts. Pirate Copy & Pete Zorba kicked off the proceedings with Alan Fitzpatrick taking the helm midday who has become recognized for his huge track ‘Do What We Want‘. Joseph Capriati threw down a worthy performance making way for another techno-wizard in the form of Adam Beyer. The day was capped off by Italian star Marco Carola.

‘The Valley’, famed for its valley shaped grassy area where guests can watch the stage above the centre crowd entertained Parklife with another huge line-up on the Sunday. Denis Sulta was a stand out performance with his dominating set dropping tracks such as Patrick Toppings ‘Be Sharp Say Nowt‘. BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac  provided banger after banger but it was the headliner and legendary Carl Cox who stole the show with his exceptional set as the night fell and the stage truly came to life.

But the real party was provided by Elrow as presented ‘The Bronx’ across both days of the weekend. Dubbed ‘confetti kingdom’ because of the vast amounts of confetti they pump into the crowd, Elrow whipped up a crazy party alongside Richy Ahmed, Steve Lawler, and Melé pulling in a large crowd. Camelphat did pieces right as the rain rolled in on the Mancunian crowd. Finalizing the last two hours, Eats Everything made sure each ounce of energy in the Parklife crowd was well and truly danced out.

Yet again it was another epic weekend in Manchester with Parklife the talk of all those who attended and even those who did not. No doubt next year will be even bigger than before and the production will be out of this world. Parklife’s rowdy crowd have been musically satisfied as Manchester now looks ahead to Warehouse Project season. For now, there are a handful of 2019 tickets on sale for a limited time so be quick if you want a slice of the action next year, grab them here.