Parklife stage shut down over health and safety concerns
A stage at the Manchester festival Parklife was shut down on June 15th over safety concerns, leading the event into chaos on its final night.
The festival, taking place at the city’s Heaton Park, was forced to shut down its Matinee stage at around 6:30pm that evening, meaning its two headline performances had to be cancelled.
One of those affected, Dutch DJ Chris Stussy, later took to social media to say he was “really gutted” over the incident, but that the area had to be shut down “due to safety reasons and the stage being overcrowded.”
Similarly, DJ Josh Baker said he was “deeply” sorry to his fans over being “unable to perform” in light of the situation, noting that the cancellation was ultimately for reasons “outside of [his] control.”
Parklife organisers subsequently issued a statement, per Manchester Evening News, that said: “As a result of crowd movement at the Matinee Stage and on the advice of our safety team to remove the risk of any potential incidents, Parklife made the decision to close the stage for the remainder of the final day of the festival.”
They continued: “Unfortunately, it has been impossible to relocate Josh Baker’s and Chris Stussy’s performances to a new stage. Our teams worked quickly and diligently to address the situation, and the safety of our festival attendees is always our utmost priority.”
Up to that point, the festival had been a success, with over 80,000 fans turning out the previous day to see acts including 50 Cent headlining.
Despite the sudden closure of the Matinee stage, however, the rest of the festival was able to continue, with Charli XCX taking to the main stage later that night to close out the weekend.
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