Brought to you by the same team behind The Warehouse Project, The Parklife Weekender takes place at Platt Fields Park, Manchester on June 9th and 10th and the line-up is looking rather tasty. Over 100 artists will perform across two days on seven arenas and, as you'd expect from the people behind The Warehouse Project, there's a strong emphasis on cutting edge dance music. We're partnering the Metroplex arena so we spoke to Mark Newton from Metropolis to see what they have in store.

Please introduce yourself…
I'm Mark Newton and I'm one of the promoters of Metropolis (alongside Wilf Gregory). I'm from Huddersfield originally but I now live in London. Metropolis has been running for ten years in autumn this year, originally beginning at Industry in Manchester (now the Factory) but has grown to take place all over the UK and beyond!

Where & when do your events take place?
Our regular shows take place in the north of England, primarily in Manchester and Leeds, but also in Newcastle and Edinburgh. We have run shows in pretty much every major UK city in the past ten years, including London, Birmingham and Glasgow. We also host arenas at a number of the major music festivals in the UK, and have held events further afield in places such as Ibiza, Croatia, Hungary and Australia.

Who are the residents?
We have five residents that play across our shows. North Base, Citizen, Steppa, Mak and MC Tonn Piper, each of which play different music styles and have been part of Metropolis for a number of years.

What's the night all about?
Bass music in its many different shapes and forms. Our nights are made up of different acts playing music across the bass music spectrum. It's somewhere to come and have a good time, where you can see the biggest acts in the business as well as the freshest new talent.

How would you describe your crowd?
Young, energetic and really into the music and having a good time

Who's played the best set at your club in the last six months?
I'd say Jackmaster who played at our Leeds Metropolis show back in January. It was the opening weekend of Mint Warehouse where we held the show, the venue was packed and the sound system was ridiculous. The way he manages to switch between genres and styles seamlessly just had the crowd going mental

Tell us all about your next night...
Our next event is this Friday at Sankeys in Manchester. Benga, Sub Focus and Hype are all performing, and its also a rare time when all our residents will be altogether as well. Its sold out already and promises to be an amazing night

Tell us what we can expect from from your arena at the Parklife festival...
The biggest and best names in bass playing in a huge arena in the middle of Platt Fields. Every year that we do Parklife it is always amazing, our arena is always the first to fill up and is rammed right through to the end. It's the first event of the festival season for us and it's good to catch up with artists we might not have seen for six months or so. The last two years it's been absolutely boiling hot on the Saturday as well so fingers crossed for the same again!

Who are you looking forward to seeing the most on the line-up?
I think Nero headlining live in our arena is going to be wicked. We've worked with the guys for a number of years now and to see the success they had last year with the album was great. They were one of our headliners in the Metropolis tent at Global Gathering last year and were one of the highlights of the festival for me, so to have them in our arena back on home turf is great.

Your residents North Base have done a guest mix for us, tell us a bit about it...
North Base have done other mixes recently showcasing lots of different styles but for Parklife they know there's no pulling punches in the Metropolis arena. They knew from last year's festival that the arena had 800 people in it immediately so they've gone straight for the jugular to get you on your dancing feet with lots of dubstep and 140 bass music before finishing off at a slower tempo.

What are your plans for the future?
Onwards and upwards, as long as people keep coming to our shows we'll keep putting them on.

Anything else you'd like to tell us about?
Our full schedule of summer events is to be announced soon, so keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter to find out more!

 

Download North Base's guest mix here

Related Links:

• Win Parklife Festival Tickets
• Parklife Weekender Returns
• Review: Metropolis
• Bench DJ Competition
• Warehouse Project Comp

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