Parklife Festival 2011

Parklife Festival

11^th-12^th June

Platt Fields, Manchester 

Standout act 

Despite D/R/U/G/S offering a decent effort and the hoards telling everyone that the sun shone out of Katy B’s arse, the standout, for my money, was DJ Shadow. Making great use of visual effects in a show rumoured to have cost £10, 000, Shadow proved he’s still a major player in beat production with a masterfully mixed, electric set.

Biggest Flop

Poor Kelis. Not sure what she was aiming for, but her set consisted mostly of borrowed beats. Listening a mile away, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d missed a set including Tinie Tempah, David Guetta and, strangely, Nirvana. Despite sounding like the Top 40, crowd favourites ‘Millionaire’ and ‘Milkshake’ still made an appearance, thank God.

Surprise Package

Not much of an unknown these days, but Darwin Deez fulfilled his hype with a high energy set, which the crowd responded to readily. DOOM so nearly won out, but his well-attended show was hampered by quiet vocals and a surprising lack of a DJ – it looked like the mask-wearing rapper was flicking through an iPod for half the set.

Atmosphere 

Despite looking like a festival-edition of Hollyoaks, Parklife is close to the hearts of most Fallowfield residents, becoming an end-of-exams tradition. With most attendees being students, there’s a chance you’ll run into familiar faces; fingers crossed it wasn’t that last-resort you were hoping you’d never see again.

Worth the money? 

At 60 notes, loans wont be rationed too strictly for this excursion. It’ll get bigger and better, but probably more expensive.