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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Sinéad Campbell

Hedonism is back: Manchester clubbing mecca Sankeys to reopen

1990s ravers
Sankeys had its heyday in the 1990s. The club’s founder says he wants to ‘recapture some of the spontaneity and social connection’ lost in a digital-first world. Photograph: PYMCA/Avalon/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Queues ran down the street outside, condensation dripped off the walls inside, memories were made – and lost – and it all unfolded without a smartphone in sight. For those who remember the Manchester nightclub Sankeys in its heyday 30 years ago, the venue was a clubbing mecca.

“Sweat was dripping off the walls,” said Lee Spence, a promoter and resident DJ at the club from 2002 to 2012, who remembers once double booking Chase & Status and Carl Cox on the same night. “It was an atmosphere like nothing else I’d really seen.”

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