Manchester could be the birthplace of a new Parklife or Glastonbury

Sacha Lord has launched a new initiative to support young music promoters in the region.

Greater Manchester’s nightlife advisor and co-founder of Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project has unveiled a special fund which will provide £10,000 a year to help four up-and-coming promoters develop and host a new music event concept in area.

The four recipients will receive £2,500 each, provided through the Sacha Lord Foundation, the charity set up by Lord and his wife to support young people in the hospitality and cultural industries. The fund will be open to applications from Greater Manchester residents aged 18-25.

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The foursome will also receive support and mentoring from Lord, co-founder of some of Manchester’s biggest music events. Both Parklife, which is billed as the UK’s largest metropolitan festival, and The Warehouse Project combined bring £21m into the Greater Manchester economy each year.

Sacha Lord said: “We have some great music promoters in Greater Manchester putting on amazing nights in these smaller venues, but we need to encourage more young people to come into the sector who have big ideas and want to create something special.

“These are the promoters who will continue to create the Parklife’s, Glastonbury’s and Creamfields of the future and provide the stages for new bands to emerge. The talk of the past two weeks has been all about global superstars performing in big arenas. , but we need to shine a light on the smaller grassroots events that can catapult acts into the mainstream.”

This comes after Manchester’s Co-op Live, which is set to become the UK’s biggest arena, has yet to open due to a series of ongoing issues and delays. The £365 million music venue was due to open on April 23 but is yet to host the opening concert.

The venue claims the building will open on May 14 with Manchester band Elbow.

Former Co-op Live arena general manager Gary Roden resigned on April 26 after a series of issues led to the Peter Kay venue’s opening shows being cancelled. The BBC also reported on comments made by Mr Roden that some small music venues were “badly run”.

This caused some backlash, but a statement from the arena at the time said it did not “share the sentiment” expressed by Mr Roden.

Regarding his annual Promotion Fund, Lord said: “when we were starting out, the biggest hurdle was finding money for venue hire, DJs, marketing and so on. I want to remove this obstacle and help young people who have ideas, but who have no way to overcome”.

How to apply

To apply for funding, first-time promoters should email [email protected] pitching their idea, why the event would be a success in Greater Manchester and details of how they intend to use the funding. They are looking for entries from all musical genres that are unique to Greater Manchester, forward thinking and diverse.

Shortlisted entrants will then be asked to pitch their concepts to Lord and his team in person, before four winning ideas are chosen for development over the next 12 months. The deadline for the first round of applications is June 30, 2024.