SUMMER | ME, MYSELF & I
Sacha
Lord
Access catches up with the
founder of Parklife and the
Warehouse Project
Interview by: Annaliese Hesketh
Manchester is the best city in the
country, that’s why we hold Parklife
here! Myself and my business partner
Sam Kandel are both from Wilmslow
and grew up in Altringham. I will
never take Parklife out of Manchester,
and it’ll always stay in Heaton Park as
it’s the biggest park in Manchester.
There’s 40-50 people working on
Parklife 12 months of the year, but today there’s a few thousand staff
working here, on bars and security. It started as a day festival for
20,000, and now it’s at 80,000 over two days, making it the biggest
metropolitan festival in the UK.
In terms of our success? We fluked it. Joking. It is part luck though.
Everyone is so passionate about it. What sets it apart is that it’s not
faceless. The people know the team behind it and we are known in
the North West, and engage with the customers. We build a rapport
on Twitter too. I try to do nice things. I occasionally see people who
say they can’t afford to go, and I DM them with a free ticket.
I think my favourite act was Christine and the Queens, she’s
quirky and a bit different. We try to make it diverse but also have
the bangers. This was the most female led festival, until Cardi B
cancelled after her boob job went wrong.
Parklife has helped change perceptions of Manchester. We were
nicknamed ‘Gunchester’, and it was common to see guns on the
54
street. I think this perception has
changed. Two years ago, at the
Manchester Arena when we lost
22 people, people looked at how
the city came together, no matter
what religion or creed we all came
together for this one purpose. I
think that changed the perception of
Manchester.
I wasn’t successful at school and didn’t go to university, so I had to
make money. I couldn’t do a 9-5 job, and I’m quite opinionated so that
narrowed my options. When I left school, Manchester was taking
off, with the Hacienda, the Smiths, etc and I never thought I’d get to
this place. I was bumbling along until I got somewhere I wanted to
be but I never thought I’d be an events manager. If someone had said
I’d have the Warehouse Project I’d have told them stop taking heroin
because it’s starting to affect you.
My biggest bugbear about festivals and customers is the perception
from outside, and I’ve had a go at people about this. People kept
saying rain would ruin the festival but people are here to have fun,
and it costs a lot of money to come because it costs a lot to put the
acts on. People need to get a life, and I think those people having a go
at me are just angry they no longer have Jeremy Kyle to watch.
I don’t know how to do anything else. I’m stuck here. What else can
I be, a traffic warden? I’ll probably have a zimmer frame and still be
doing Parklife.