7 Acts Not To Be Missed At Parklife Festival 2022

Manchester’s pride and joy, Parklife Festival, returns to Hyde Park for another bumper year on June 11-12. It’s always a stacked line-up at Parklife, but this y

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Manchester’s pride and joy, Parklife Festival, returns to Hyde Park for another bumper year on June 11-12. It’s always a stacked line-up at Parklife, but this year feels even bigger than ever.

We’ve got blockbuster US names like 50 Cent, Megan Thee Stallion and Tyler, The Creator, but our own homegrown acts remain the dominant force. Central Cee, Headie One, Kojey Radical, ArrDee and Mahalia lead the charge, and there’s a tonne of house and techno from DJ EZ, Bicep, Jayda G, Eats Everything, Annie Mac, Skream, Overmono and more. 

There are at least a few acts we think you shouldn’t be forgiven for skipping. A mixture of up-and-comers whose stars are burning bright and more established legends who may not be back for a while, these are the seven acts we think are not to be missed at Parklife 2022.


Tems

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If you weren’t lucky enough to bag a ticket to Wizkid’s historic three-night run at the O2 last November as part of the Made In Lagos tour, you should be beside yourself to see Tems on the line-up—her guest appearance, to sing her part of “Essence”, was arguably the highlight of the run. She had an entire room completely enraptured and, at least for a moment, completely stole the show. Since then, she’s become a global star and both Drake and Future insisted she appear on their most recent projects. Again, make sure you catch her now because her headline tour is pretty much guaranteed to be a bank-breaker.


50 Cent

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Between his myriad business ventures, the Power franchise, and his sideline as King Of The Trolls, 50 Cent is busier than ever, but the amount of time and attention he can give to the music side is getting smaller and smaller. His appearance at Dr. Dre’s Superbowl Halftime show, alongside the rest of the Death Row/Aftermath family, was a rare treat, but a full-blown headline appearance at a festival—especially a UK one—is rarer still. The rap superstar hasn’t really spoken about retiring, but as his empire grows, who knows when you’ll get to see him next? If the halftime appearance showed us how quickly “In Da Club” can whip a crowd into a frenzy, don’t forget about “P.I.M.P”, “Candy Shop”, “21 Questions”, “Many Men” and the rest.


ENNY

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When ENNY dropped Under 25 last year, catching her live was an absolute treat—one of those rare chances to see a new talent emerge fully formed with plenty of hits and the understated charisma to match. Since then, the prospect of seeing the rapper on stage has only grown. Not only is she more confident and comfortable in front of large crowds, but ENNY’s also expanded her repertoire into new and surprising territories. In the past year or so, she’s partnered with BOJ on an Alte beat, explored a darker rap sound with Odeal, and slipped into soul and R&B alongside Shaé Universe and Mychelle. All that is to say that an ENNY set in 2022 is bound to be an eclectic, multi-genre snapshot of all the different sounds and styles you can hear pumping out of car stereos in London. And who knows, she might even bring out a friend or two.


PinkPantheress

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Perhaps unfairly and a little too readily associated simply with TikTok, the past year or so has proven there’s quite a bit more to Kent’s PinkPantheress. “Just For Me” dominated the app for what seemed like forever, but it didn’t take long for her to follow through with the goods and show us how talented and well-informed she is as a musician. Her debut project, to hell with it, did stratospheric numbers and then right at the top of this year, she released a bumper remix package, calling on the likes of Anz, Sam Gellaitry, Nia Archives, Flume, and more to take the tracks deeper into the garage, jungle and rave territories her production often flirts with. So what her Parklife set will bring is anyone’s guess. All-out rave? Intimate singer-songwriter set? Both? It really could be anything.


DJ EZ

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DJ EZ. King of the dance. A surefire selector if ever there was one. His 24-hour marathon sets during lockdown weren’t just ideal for breaking up the tedium, they were lifelines. They were hardly one-offs, though—he mastered the art of sprawling UK garage sets years ago. The North Londoner has a bottomless record bag and, crowd or no crowd, his set-building is unrivalled. He’s unlikely to have a whole day to himself this time, of course, but if you were blown away by what he could do with 24 hours and no audience, just you wait. Expect live remixes, outlandish blends, and all the chest-rattling, low-end bounce you can stomach.


Kojey Radical

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His debut LP, Reason To Smile, is still relatively fresh in all our ears, but we’ve still had enough time to learn all the words so this really is the perfect time to catch Kojey Radical on his victory lap. Whether he’s performing in front of tens of thousands or a TV studio on a Saturday morning, Kojey’s never given his live shows anything less than 1000%. The luxurious funk swagger that Swindle gave this album was screaming out to be blasted from giant speakers in the sunshine. “War Outside”, “Payback”, “Reason To Smile”, “Gangsta” … honestly, if he just plays the whole album front to back, it’ll be a hell of a set. 


Headie One

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We haven’t had a project since last year’s Too Loyal For My Own Good, but that’s hardly a problem for Headie One. With the time that’s passed since that release, it’s more than likely this will be a run-through of the hits, but he’s got more than enough of those. Not only that, but as his stage presence continues to grow exponentially, he’s starting to wear his crown very well. And between his work with RV and his countless team-ups with Stormzy, AJ Tracey, M Huncho, Skepta, Aitch, Mahalia… the list of potential guests goes on and on—and several of them are already on the bill. The possibilities are almost endless with a Headie One stageshow, so expect plenty of surprises (and probably a mosh-pit).


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