Manchester’s latest festival went off with a quiet bang this weekend as 15,000 revellers descended onto Platt Fields for Parklife.
Parklife boasted a international line-up including the best artists from Electro, Drum and Bass, and Indie.
We arrived at 2pm only to be greeted with giant queue, which took over a hour to get through, some people we spoke to said they had queued for over a hour and half which was disappointing.
The Japanese Popstars and Kissy sell-out got the party started on the main stage with their uncompromising nu-rave sound – much to the crowds delight.
Headline act Booka Shade were scheduled to play at the same time as the England game, which seem to reduce the amount of people who got to see them – they played many of the classic songs including In White Rooms, Night Falls and some of their new material from More. Sadly the sound system was very disappointing, so we went to watch Vitalic at the big top electro tent.
Vitalic rolled up with his V Mirrors setup – which consisted of two large LED screens either side of him that were mirrored and produced the best visuals of the entire festival.
He played a mixture of his old material from V Live, which was cleverly mixed with material from his amazing new album Flashmob, highlights were aplenty with the crowd going wild for Anatoles, Bells, La Rock, Posion Lips and Flashmob. Definetley the highlight of the day and the sound wasn’t to bad either – although we think Vitalic probably had something to do with this, as the French always demand a good sound system.
We checked out Damian Lazarus at his Cross Town Rebels tent and were very under whelmed – he had quite clearly draw the short straw and was given the smallest tent of the whole festival – I’ve seen weddings in bigger tents. And once again the sound levels were embarrassing. Although this didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the crowd as it remained full throughout the day and night.
Mixhell rocked the electro big top with their unique blend of electro and rock – consisting of Sepultura’s old drummer, who played the drums live whilst his wife mixed on vinyl – their high energy set certainly got us in the mood.
We then moved on the drum and bass tent hosted by Metropolis to catch a bit of Hype – he hadn’t turned up from the looks of it. But Rich Reason stepped up to the decks and cleared the tent with his unique blend of rubbish urban dubstep.
The defining moment must have been with 45 minutes to go and Andy C was about to finish the night off with his jump up DnB – but the 4,000 strong crowd weren’t happy and started chanting “turn it up”. This should be evidence enough that the sound was just not up to scratch. Drum and Bass with no Bass just does not cut it.
We do accept the this is the first Parklife with a new venue in the City Centre, but you need a decent sound level if they want to compete with the likes Creamfields and Global Gathering. And for us Parklife fell well short. Let’s hope that Parklife returns next year and they have the balls to turn the sound up.
