Parklife hasn't been this hot for years. It's truly been a scorcher with temperatures soaring to 28 degrees. Festival-goers were wilting for the first couple of hours, seeking out shade wherever they could.
But once the main stage started heating up, all that seemed to fly out of the window, with Mimi Webb fans cramming the arena for a set of emotional pop music. Tracks like 24/5 and the viral TikTok hit Good Without had fans on each other's shoulders, but Dumb Love was the one which got the crowd singing with everything they had.
"Who's feeling hot today?" she asked. "Because I'm bloody boiling." In hindsight, maybe the jumper dress was not a wise choice, Mimi. Come on. Someone needs to get her the Met Office app.
Out there in the arenas, festival fans have been travelling from far and wide to get to the biggest metropolitan festival in the UK. Julia and Ellie, both 18, made their way from Edinburgh due to the mega lineup over the two day event. "We’re here for the full weekend and are here for anything that basically sounds good, anything that catches your ear, we’ll go see it. But I think overall we’re most looking forward to seeing Ben Hemsley perform,” Julia said.
Elsewhere,
co-ordinated outfitshave been very much a thing. Matching t-shirts or same style hats - friends were out in force in lookalike outfits. One group in particular had a clever reason behind their matching vibes.
Luke Parkinson, 20, from Oldham, Chelsea Stone, 20, from South Africa, Euan Ogwin, 21, from Kenya and Adam Sharp, 20, from Oldham were all sporting pink so they would stand out in the crowd. Chelsea said: “I just wanted everyone to know that we’re all together. It’s also easier to find each other when we’re all wearing the same colour, you know what to look out for!”
Meanwhile, there were some heavy hitters over on the Parklife stage including Rachel Agatha Keen, better known professionally as Raye. The pop star, who recently accepted the prize for best contemporary song at the Ivor Novello Awards was here last year, and was rightly bumped up a few spots in the lineup this time round, and had the crowd eating our the palm of her hand with singalongs to 'Secrets', 'You Don't Know Me' and 'Escapism'.
Her rendition of the latter was particularly poignant following her decision to go independent last year and her vocal criticism of the music industry having spent nearly a decade in record label penbury, where she was unable to release an album without the say so. "Sometimes I don't know what to say, I'm stood her in Manchester in front of all of you - you take my breath away," the singer confessed.
"Thank you so much for coming out. This time last year I was in a very different space, I have just gone independent, people were speaking s*** about me and then god blessed me with a song, a song that's been 11 years in the process and I love this song, I love this album and I'm going to sing it to you with my entire frickin soul." And that she did.
British drum and bass band Rudimental followed Raye on the Parklife stage. They last played Parklife way back in 2018, with their last appearance in the city being a slot at the Warehouse Project in 2021.
It was a blazing set, with drummer Beanie Bhebhe putting in an absolute shift. Tracks like Give You Up and Not Giving In whipped the crowd into a frenzy, before new single Dancing Is Healing dropped, paving the way for a wild curveball - their own version of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn.
The temperature cooled off as we headed into the early evening and it felt like there was a collective sigh of relief as the wind picked up and for the first time in about eight hours we didn't feel like absolute muck. Things were a bit more chilled, and it turns out that was the perfect time for Little Simz to head out onto the Parklife Stage.
I think we can all agree that there isn't anyone cooler right now than last year's Mercury Award winner Little Simz. "Manchester I'm so happy to be here, thank you for supporting me. There is an album of mine you might have heard of called 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’, well can I play some of that for you?"
The rapper then treated crowds to a rendition of 'Two Worlds Apart' before telling them, "we're only just getting warmed up, Manny sing this s*** with me, before really getting the audience going with 'I Love You, I Hate You'. Simply put, it was a sublime set from someone who is the master of her craft.
Here in Manchester, we like to look after our own, so it seems fitting that tonight's headline slot on the Parklife Stage went to none other than Harrison Armstrong, better known as Aitch.
On brand, the opening of his set featured images of the Manchester skyline, and interspersed between songs such as 'Learning Curve', 'Strike a Pose' and 'Buss Down' the word Manchester is uttered so many times I feel like we should have had a wager on it. And that's not even counting the name checks on his custom-made jacket.
That said, it's clear that his Manchester roots mean a lot to him. Raised in Moston, Aitch used to play football for a team called Moston Brook but after his freestyle raps caught the attention of industry professionals, he quickly rose to fame, collaborating with the likes of Ed Sheeran and fellow Mancunian rapper Bugzy Malone.
Back in February, he picked up his first Brit Award for British Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act, but he's not one to forget where he came from. Reminiscing about the tracks that catapulted him to fame -particularly 'Wait', he tells the crowd, "I f***** love this place".
As the second half of his set progresses, we're treated to a whistle stop tour of some of his other hits including 'Keisha & Becky', 'UFO' and 'Psycho', as well as some pyrotechnics, and a stage which lifts the Moston rapper high above the Manchester crowd, before a final treat in the form of Ladbrooke Grove's finest, AJ Tracey, who joins Aitch on stage for a rendition of their hit track 'Rain'.
Only last year, Fred Again.. played to a few hundred people at the Eat Your Own Ears stage, one of the smallest at the festival. It was a pretty heart-felt set, the crowd there for all of it.
But clearly something has shifted since then. Tonight, he filled The Valley in its entirety, trading up that few hundred for a few thousand. Was it bigger than Aitch’s crowd? It certainly looked like it.
Ending the set with Billie (Loving Arms), building it up and bringing it back down again several times, it’ll be the song that echoes through the city as thousands make their way home for the night after a heady day in Heaton Park.
READ MORE: Parklife 2023 entry times, lineup, venue, stages and everything else you need to know
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