Parklife boss Sacha Lord-Marchionne has told Music Week he hopes this weekend's festival will be a celebration for Manchester, as the city continues its recovery from last month's terror attack.
The sold-out 80,000-capacity event, which was first held in 2010, is set for Heaton Park from June 10-11 and will be headlined by The 1975 and Frank Ocean.
"We’re at 80,000 per day this weekend and it has been our fastest-selling edition to date," said Lord-Marchionne. "It’s grown rapidly - faster than we could even have imagined."
Other acts on the bill include Boy Better Know, Two Door Cinema Club, Run The Jewels, Stormzy, Jess Glynne, Fatboy Slim, George Ezra, London Grammar, Carl Cox, Damian Marley, Chaka Khan, Eric Prydz and Above & Beyond.
Lord-Marchionne said the diversity of its line-up is key to Parklife's ongoing success. "You’ve got The 1975 and Jess Gynne at one end of the table and the likes of Stormzy and David Rodigan at the other, so we go right across the spectrum."
A co-founder of Manchester-based club brand The Warehouse Project, Lord-Marchionne is filled with pride at the resilience shown by his home city in the wake of the May 22 atrocity.
"I'm always banging on about Manchester and I think I've been proved right - there's just something special about this city," he said. "We are the biggest public gathering of our demographic since the incident, so I want [Parklife] to be one huge celebration."
