10 June 2014 (gig)
10 June 2014
In true Mancunian style, Parklife Weekender kicked off with a month's worth of downpour within one hour and enough mud to make Glastonbury jealous!
Regardless, ‘the show must go on’ and the team behind Parklife handled the last minute flooding, delayed start and angry, wet festival-goers with grace. The bad start was swiftly forgotten once we made our way through the gates to the thousands of people bopping inside the tents.
Saturday’s line-up began for me, with Chromeo in the ‘Now Wave’ tent. I’d not had the opportunity to see the funky duo live before and it’s fair to say their set was a pleasant surprise. I’ll be keeping an eye on tour dates for this electro-funk pair in the future.
Never one to disappoint, Rudimental were the penultimate act on the main stage. A technical fault halted their set, which killed the vibe until Kesi Dryden brought it back hailing, ‘This ain’t gonna stop us right now’. At which point everyone went crazy and as I looked around I saw a sea of bodies moving; everyone went in for the end of their set.
Post-Rudimental the atmosphere shifted again in anticipation for Snoop Dogg to grace the stage. He opened his set with a song from his latest album ‘Reincarnation’ (does he still call himself Snoop Lion?) and it was a huge disappointment. I usually listen to his album on repeat but he did it no justice on the stage and I’m not sure whether it was where I stood but you could barely hear him. I felt next to no connection to his performance - so much so that I left after the third song!
When chatting to others about Snoop's perforance, the reviews were mixed, but the majority of positive comments came from the people who were nearest the front. By no means am I writing Snoop Dogg off, next time, and there will be a next time, I’ll be sure to get nice and close to the ‘Doggystyle’ rapper!
As with all festivals, the second day took a little longer to kick off. However, one look at the line-up and it was time to whistle over the saint carrying the flow of ice cold beer; sink one of those and it’s party time. The majority of my time was spent at the main stage to begin with. Sam Smith lived up to his reputation and sang a great version of Arctic Monkeys' ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, amongst his other recent singles.
I was simply taken aback by the strength of Hannah Reid’s voice from London Grammar and although it was probably a little mellow for that spot on the main stage, they did have a huge, impressed crowd. Not one person could fault the quality of their set.
We then made our way over to ‘The Jackathon’ tent to raise the tempo after London Grammar and catch some of Hot Since 82’s quality set - if you get the opportunity to see this British DJ live, I’d strongly recommend it!
The highlight of the night, with no surprises, goes to Disclosure who closed Parklife with a spectacular live set. Even though I’ve seen the duo about a 100 times, the amount of fun each performance delivers to the crowd, proves it's worth seeing them each and every time! They drew the biggest crowd at Parklife, playing the majority of their songs from their ‘Settle’ album and they finished the weekend on a great high.
Thank you Parklife for yet another fantastic weekend... until 2015!
