Sacha Lord, Greater Manchester’s nighttime economy advisor, chair of the UK’s Night Time Industries Association, and founder of both the UK’s biggest urban music festival, Parklife, and clubbing behemoth Warehouse Project (WHP) has departed his role at both Parklife and WHP.
Announcing his exit on Twitter, Lord simply said “End of an era. Start of a new chapter. I’ve exited both Warehouse Project and Parklife.”
A statement from Lord offered a little more detail: “The decision to step down was not an easy one for me to make. I will miss the team, the events, the customers, I’ll even miss the stress and the late nights, but I’ve known for a long time that Parklife 2024 was going to be the last for me,” it read.
“There could not have been a more perfect moment for me to step away than now – exactly 30 years since my first event at The Hacienda – and I’m so excited for what’s to come.
“This decision will free up my time to focus on my roles in the night time economy and hospitality sectors, and of course, most importantly, the birth of my first child with my beautiful wife Demi later this year.
“I’d like to thank the millions of people who have stepped foot into The Warehouse Project or Parklife over the last few decades, and those who have supported me and the team. I would also like to thank the tens of thousands of staff members we’ve had over the years, the suppliers, and those closest to me for putting up with the late nights.
“I am very excited to watch from afar, and I’d like to wish the team the very best going forward.”
It’s understood that today’s changing of the guard follows a transfer of shares to LN Gaiety, a subsidiary of concert and festival giant Live Nation, which was agreed in 2021. LN Gaiety had previously bought shares in Parklife and WHP in a 2016 deal that promised “further growth and expansion to ensure Manchester stays firmly on the map.”
The WHP/Parklife exit is the latest chapter in a hectic 2024 to date for the rookie club promoter-turned nighttime guru and partying policy provider to the powerful.
At the turn of the year Lord, alongside celebrity chefs Simon Rimmer and Simon Wood, took the lead in a high-profile campaign to try and persuade the then-Tory government to drop the VAT on hospitality businesses in the wake of a raft of big-name closures, including Rimmer’s own flagship Greens in Didsbury. That unfortunately fell on deaf ears in the Spring Budget.
Next, in April Lord published his memoir, Tales from the Dancefloor, co-authored by former City Life editor Luke Bainbridge, to some acclaim, including a number two spot on the Sunday Times Bestseller charts and 4.6-stars on Amazon.
That was followed a month later by a somewhat less acclaimed legal spat with Manchester hyperlocal news website The Mill, over a story it had published concerning Arts Council funding of one of Lord’s companies received during the pandemic.
Lord has already utterly refuted any suggestions of wrongdoing, and addressed the matter at some length in a statement back in May, and there’s no suggestion that the publication of the Spring Budget, Lord’s book or The Mill’s story have any bearing on today’s news.
Then in June, what would turn out to be Lord’s final Parklife at the helm was hit by its fair share of social media griping when top-billed acts including Digga D, Mercury Prize nominee J Hus, and Fisher dropped out at late notice. Not a disaster by any means, but perhaps not quite the perfect send off you’d hope for.
Plus it rained, but complaining about rain at a British music festival is like complaining about hats at a Smurf convention.
Moving forwards, Lord doubtless has plenty to keep him busy as a voice for hospitality across the UK in his position as chair of the Night Time Industries Association, particularly now there’s a new government in office that Lord has predicted will “work and listen to the Independents” he represents.
There’s also the matter of his own charitable trust, the Sacha Lord Foundation, which seeks to encourage and support young people entering the hospitality sector, and offers £10,000 in annual grants to new promoters in Greater Manchester.
Then there’s the aforementioned first child, and if he still has time on his hands, getting non-league Wythenshawe FC, where Lord is chair, to the Premier League could be a worthwhile side project.
If the self-proclaimed “nerdy kid from Altrincham” is looking at publishing a Tales from the Dancefloor II anytime soon, however, the first few chapters may already be writing themselves in an action-packed first half of 2024.
