Parklife seeks greener grass in Heaton Park

The festival’s abandoned Platt Fields and people are kicking off about the move

Fallowfield Heaton Park Owens Park Parklife Plattfields

Students love Parklife Festival. It signals the start of the summer and the last chance to party after exams before everyone heads home.

But this year there have been complaints about the festival’s move from the ‘student village’ of Fallowfield to Heaton Park.

Students are worried about transport to the new venue and the uproar hasn’t gone unnoticed. The people affected want their opinions to be heard:

 

The Facebook response

However, not everyone was so upset. People slated the angry comments, telling students to ‘dry their eyes’ and stop being so negative…

The student population

Is Manchester’s student population really up in arms about the move? Hannah, a fresher, said: “It would have been convenient if the festival was at Platt Fields Park because it is so close, but with the buses being put on to Heaton Park I’m not too fussed because the line up is really good!”

Miranda, also at Manchester, said: “[The move from Platt Fields] is only a mild annoyance, which has been solved by the Parklife Express. The only problem will be if the buses aren’t regular or reliable, we’ll have to see.”

Parklife 2012’s crowd absolutely having it

The Organisers

The Tab spoke to Rob Masterson, one of the Parklife core team, who said: “Platt Fields Park has served us well, the festival has simply outgrown the venue and we felt that 2013 was the right time to move.

“Heaton Park is one of the largest parks in Europe, which makes room for bigger artists and three new arenas. This year there will be a focus on including new and local artists, and the extra space gives the creative team a chance to create more craziness.”

Basically, Rob says Parklife 2013 is going to be a bigger and better experience for everyone.

The Solutions

Is transport going to be an issue? There are three tram stops within walking distance of the park, and plenty of taxis and buses. There’s also info about car sharing on the Parklife website.

Also, organisers are laying on the ‘Parklife Express’ – a fleet of buses from Fallowfield and the city centre to Heaton. A few details about this are already on the Parklife website, with more to be released soon.

However, students still have cause for concern about the transport links. There were serious problems at recent big events in Heaton Park, such as The Stone Roses gig. There’s pressure on the Parklife team to solve this problem.

Judging by previous years and this year’s line-up, which includes Example, Plan B, Rita Ora and Jessie Ware, tickets will sell out soon. Keep an eye on the Parklife Facebook page for build-up to the festival, but in the meantime we’ll leave you with this…