NOVEMBER | FEATURE
Time for action
Access talks to Parklife Festival and Warehouse Project co-founder Sacha Lord about his plans for Parklife 2021 , and his work representing entertainment and hospitality businesses , employees and freelancers impacted by the Government ’ s Covid-19 measures .
The night time economy adviser
for Greater Manchester and a board member of the Night Time Industries Association ( NTIA ), Sacha Lord is passionately representing the entertainment and hospitality industries and those working within them .
The co-founder of Manchester ’ s 80,000-capacity Parklife and hugely successful club night The Warehouse Project , Lord has lived and breathed the entertainment business for the past 25 years . With Covid-19 measures having decimated the sector , Lord says he joined the NTIA last month because it had become an extremely strong voice for the industry : “ The NTIA is pushing really hard and CEO Michael Kill has done a great job . An awful lot of work goes on in the background ; there is constant dialogue with the DCMS .”
Passionately against the Government- introduced 10pm hospitality curfew , Lord says he stands shoulder to shoulder with G-A-Y nightclub owner Jeremy Joseph and his legal challenge to it : “ The curfew is the most stupid decision I ’ ve seen in a very , very , long time . There is no scientific evidence to support it . [ Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies ] SAGE said it did not recommend it , and any operator in the UK could have told the government that kicking every single person out at 10:00 o ’ clock was going to cause issues in supermarkets , overloaded transport , and crowds in
Words : Christopher Barrett
and around takeaways .
“ The government seems to find it easy to turn their back on us . They probably consider us as a nuisance , just people going out having fun , when actually it is the fifth biggest industry in the whole of the UK – it pumps £ 70bn into of the UK economy , and in Greater Manchester alone we employ more than 420,000 people .”
However , progress is being made with Government and Lord says a Night Club Taskforce is being created . It is the result of meetings between the NTIA , Lord and Paul Scully , the business , energy and industrial strategy minister . The aim is to work toward creating Covid-secure nightclubs .
Says Lord , “ I am talking directly with his policy officers who do seem to be listening . We ’ re talking about two paths ; financial support for the sector and a road map to reopening . We have to be looking at what other countries have achieved , such as opening venues with rapid Covid-19 testing prior to enabling entry .”
Looking ahead to next year , Lord says the Parklife line-up is booked and its team are “ planning for success ”. The LN-Gaiety owned festival is due to take place in Manchester ’ s Heaton Park between 12-13 June .
“ We ’ ve told the council it ’ s happening , and we are ready to go ,” says Lord . “ Clearly , we are watching things very , very closely but we are in planning mode at the moment .”
Appalled by recent comments by former Conservative MP Edwina Currie , who when asked about jobs in arts and events said “ you cannot save all the puppies ”, Lord emphasises Parklife ’ s economic impact : “ We have 4,500 people working on it over the weekend , and outside its gates its brings in more than £ 15m to the local economy .”
Asked whether there will be many changes to the infrastructure and facilities at Parklife in light of the continued Covid-19 threat , Lord says numerous measures will be taken : “ There will be temperature checks , potentially people will have to have a test 48 hours beforehand , the queue systems will be different , there will be no cash but lots of hand sanitizer .
“ We will definitely have to put many measures in place but not just next year , I think that will be the way things are moving forward .”
28