Manchester could be the birthplace of a new Parklife or Glastonbury

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

Greater Manchester’s Night Time Economy Advisor and the co-founder of Parklife festival and The Warehouse Project has unveiled a special fund that will will provide £10,000 per year to help four budding promoters develop and host a new music event concept in the 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 for applications from residents of Greater Manchester aged between 18 and 25.

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The four individuals will also receive support and mentorship from Lord, the co-founder of some of Manchester’s biggest music events. Both Parklife, which is regarded as the UK’s biggest metropolitan festival, and The Warehouse Project combined brings £21 million into the Greater Manchester economy every year.

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

"These are the promoters who will go on to create the Parklife's, Glastonbury's and Creamfields of the future and provide the stages for new music acts to come through. Discussions over the last couple of weeks have all been about the global superstars performing at large arenas, but we need to shine a light on the smaller grassroots events which can catapult acts into the mainstream.”

This comes after Manchester’s Co-op Live, which is set to become the largest arena in the UK, is still 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 its opening gig.

The venue maintains that the building will open on May 14, with Manchester band Elbow performing..

The former general manager of the Co-op Live arena, Gary Roden, resigned on April 26 after a series of problems resulted in the cancellation of the venue’s opening Peter Kay shows. The BBC also reported on comments made by Mr Roden that some small music venues were “poorly run”.

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

In reference to his Annual Promotor Fund, Lord said: “when I was starting off my biggest hurdle was finding the money for venue hire, DJs, marketing and so on. I want to take this hurdle away and help young people who have the ideas but no way of breaking through."

How to apply

To apply for funding, first time promoters should email NTEOffice@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk, proposing their idea, why the event would be a success in Greater Manchester and details on how the entrant plans to utilise the funding. They are looking for entries across all music genres, that are unique to Greater Manchester, forward thinking and diverse.

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