The Matinee stage at the Parklife festival was closed this evening with bosses at the festival making the decision to pause proceedings at the dance arena following ‘advice from the safety team’
Parklife festival goers received a surprising update that one of its prime stages was shut, citing ‘safety’ worries as the cause. Revellers were earlier asked to evacuate from the Matinee stage, following a decision by Heaton Park festival chiefs to halt the dance arena’s programme based on ‘advice from the safety team’.
Manchester’s own DJ Josh Baker and Denmark’s Chris Stussy had been lined up to grace the stage Sunday evening. In a heartfelt Instagram post, Baker, who was scheduled for a 6.30pm to 8pm slot, expressed his regrets saying he was ‘deeply sorry’ he couldn’t take the stage.
On social media to his followers, he announced: “Unfortunately, I will not be performing at Parklife due to reasons outside of my control. I deeply apologise. I can’t really put into words what today was going to mean for me.”
Chris Stussy, set to close the stage with an 8pm to 11pm performance, found himself in the same position, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Taking to Instagram, Stussy revealed his disappointment at not being able to perform, mentioning ‘safety comes first’ and pointed out that the closure was ‘due to safety reasons’ and issues with the ‘stage being over-crowded’.
By way of an alert through the Parklife app, festival organisers informed that there was an interruption at the Matinee stage. Festival-goers saw the message: “Upon advice of the PL safety team, the show on the Matinee stage has been paused. We will update asap.”
In a fresh statement released this evening, Parklife’s spokesperson announced: “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.
“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.”
Attendees described the stage area as dangerously overcrowded, with ‘all packed together’ and ‘too many people in’. A staff member reportedly took to the stage to announce an evacuation due to a ‘health and safety emergency’.
Lizzie Brown, 18, from Birmingham, said: “I was in there and they were letting too many people in. We were all packed together, but stuck. This man on the mic said everyone needs to leave. He said it was a health and safety emergency. As we were leaving, we had to climb over the barrier to get out.”
Several hopefuls lingered outside the Matinee stage, wishing for it to reopen, yet eventually dispersed when it became clear that it wouldn’t be in time for Stussy’s scheduled performance. The rest of the festival’s stages continued to operate without interruption
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