Parklife 2026: what it's really like

The Ticket Squad crew attended Parklife this year, and we would probably say that this was the best festival so far this year on our docket in terms of the overall experience. The event took place during a heat wave, and so it's particularly worth noting it was extremely hot and sunny for the whole weekend. This can be challenging for festivals in terms of providing sufficient shade, access to water and other amenities that become more challenging when it's hot and dusty and dry.

Have to say the organisers did a fantastic job with Parklife this year. The lineup was outstanding. The stages were great, and the quality of the sound systems was among the best we've heard. The music leaned heavy on D&B, dubstep, and some other EDM and house options, with the Sunday leaning more house.

Saturday was an incredible line-up and the best overall day we've had at a festival so far this year.

The crowd was fairly young, but the vibes were really good. Crowd management was good. We really liked the size of this festival. It's very easy to get from stage to stage. There aren't too many pinch points, except really just before the headliners and just after on the main stage, which is the Valley stage. I would say get there ahead of the headliner if you want to snag a good spot and you don't want to spend too much time kind of weaving your way in through crowds. But I do not want to take away from how rarely this happened. We really did have a good time in the crowds, and the vibes were very chill.

We sprang an extra £50 on our ticket price this year for VIP. This gave us access to a central area with its own dedicated bars, toilets and shaded areas, including bean bags, chairs, park benches and food options. There were also discounts at the bars, sponsored by PayPal, if you used a PayPal card to buy. Those discounts were pretty good. If you can afford VIP and they do it the same next year, do it! Just for the toilets alone, which never had a queue, were always beautifully clean, and had a substantially shorter bar queue, it was worth it. Add on to that the fact that you can actually see and hear the main stage from the corner of the VIP, sitting on a little embankment. Really made this a great option that we had absolutely no regrets about.

There's no camping at Parklife. It's 2x day festivals effectively, and do not be afraid when you see the line-up to just get a day ticket. I would say if you really like D&B, Saturday was your day, Sunday was more for the house fans; and so don't think of Parklife as a big mission to go to and come back from. It's not a Friday to Monday or Thursday to Monday festival. It's a Saturday and/or Sunday festival, and very doable.

The only slight challenge with the location in Heaton Park is getting in and out. Getting dropped off there in an Uber or by a mate was not a big deal. There are buses from the city centre. It's not a massive walk to get in from the drop-off point, but getting out is a bit of a different picture. They do close the roads after 8pm. You have basically a 45-minute walk from the exit of the park to the first place you can really hail a cab realistically or get a coach. Leave time for getting out. Pre-book a taxi if you can, would be our best advice for travel.