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Writer's pictureBilly Brake

Review: Parklife 2017


Manchester's popular Parklife Festival celebrated its seventh year this year, with a huge line-up starring The 1975, Frank Ocean, Two Door Cinema Club and more.


Thankfully, the weather behaved for the most part. The odd drip came down - which was actually quite refreshing - and the wind mostly stayed away. Although it did show its face on Sunday a fair bit. It was muddy, as most (all?) English festivals tend (need?) to be.



The stages were fantastic. From the shipping container-style of the ‘Temple Stage’, to the openness of the ‘Sounds of the Near Future’ stage, it worked splendidly. Each stage was easy to find, and if you were cold, you could wander into the Greenhouse to find some warmth.


First up, we caught Chaka Khan. The performance was only marred when some people whistled during the minute-long silence she requested for those who passed in the recent attack at Ariana Grande's concert. Not many artists I saw got the same reaction to a song than Chaka Khan got to 'I’m Every Woman' and 'Ain’t Nobody'. Full of passion and joy, she completely set the mood for the weekend.


We arrived just in time to catch the end of Tom Misch’s set, and thus thankfully caught all of Loyle Carner. We also found ourselves pleasantly surprised at Loyle Carner’s use of other artists. He engaged with the audience extensively, played the songs that exactly matched the mood of his crowd. He was brilliant. His movements on stage meant that plenty in the audience felt as though he wasn't just singing, he was performing for them.


Anderson Paak and The Free Nationals will definitely go down as a favourite set of the weekend. Showing just how marvellous he is, he tirelessly kept going. The switching of red and blue lighting so perfectly coupled with the rich blue of the tent, as well as guiding his performance. Seeing his genuine pleasure at being there, performing for us, brought a personal aspect to the performance. Plus, mixing some of the very well-known songs with the lesser proved to be a huge success. 


I’m not one to often listen to Damian Marley, but his set was impressive. The visuals behind the stage were great, seemingly flowing in the wind. Lights weren’t too effective as it was still light, but the way the Temple Stage was built was awesome. Cue spits of fire, etc. Perfectly fitting the crowd, limbs flailed and feet stomped over and over again. 


One of the acts I had been particularly excited to see was Sampha - I even gathered a group of six friends to accompany me. It was’t too bad by any means. It was just a bit more mellow than I had expected, and it kind of felt like I wanted to have a lie down. Not because of the bad music, but it just made me sleepy. The visuals I felt lacked a bit, and it just wasn’t as much as I thought it’d be.


As has been fairly pointed out, Frank Ocean is more of an artist than a performer. Having said that, he did come to perform and I was extremely disappointed in his set. Unable to adequately read the mood of his audience, he stumbled about stage, stopping songs and then starting over. He played songs that were extremely slow, and too much so for the vast, excitable crowd. He was also 45 minutes late on stage. It looked like he was completely out of it, and that he barely knew where he was. He barely had a stage presence. Although, it has to be said the lights in the sky looked amazing in the clouds, but that’s about as much praise as I can give for his performance. Not to take away from his talent, of course.


Just stick to the Spotify playlists.

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