National and international causes benefit from generosity of festival-goersSat 11th &  Sun 12th June 2011Platt Fields, Manchester  

The Parklife Weekender’s sell out crowd dug deep into their pockets last weekend in support of charity at home, across the country and abroad. Collecting donations at the entrance of the festival, over £5000 was raised for Freedom from Torture, Made in Malawi, A Project in The Park, Beat, and The Mustard Tree. 

An electric atmosphere sound-tracked by some of the hottest electronic, indie and pop music acts, was certainly reflected by the positive reaction of the crowd. The thousands in attendance helped raise over £5000 for a number of fantastic causes.

Festival co-promoter Kirsty Smith commented: “We’re really proud of the Parklife Weekender this year, not just because the festival’s expansion and sell out success, but also because we could reach out and help some causes close to our hearts and homes. Manchester supports us a great deal through all of our events, they fill the dance floor and they’re the ones cheering at the end of every DJ set. As a chance to give something back to Manchester  we are sending on donations to two charities on our door step, both in the city and Platt Fields park itself, in addition to the national and overseas organisations.”

Parklife Weekender is very proud to be supporting the following charities:

A Project in The Park raises funds being donated towards the regeneration of the Rose Gardens in Platt Fields park, which was an area used for the Roshambo fields.

The Mustard Tree is a Manchester based charity committed to providing life support for the homeless, marginalised and vulnerable across Greater Manchester.  They serve these communities through the provision of food, clothing,  furniture and training.  They aim not only to improve live for the deprived communities around us but also work to care for the environment through continual re-use and recycling of resources for the benefit of those in need.

Beat is the leading UK charity for people with eating disorders and their families. Beat is the working name of the Eating Disorders Association, and it continues to build on the strong foundations of the past 20 years of work. Eating disorders are a serious mental illness affecting 1.6 million people in the UK. Beat provides helplines for adults and young people, online support and a UK-wide network of self-help groups to help people beat their eating disorder. 

Made in Malawi is a very new start up charitable association. In September 2010 they took on their first project which was to build a nursery school in Malawi. By November 2010 we completed the nursery to a basic standard. There are now 84 children aged between 1 and 5 attending. Their goal this year is to improve the quality of the nursery and teaching, and to build another classroom.

Freedom from Torture (formerly the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture) provides direct care to torture survivors and promotes their rights so they can start to rebuild their lives.  They have five treatment centres around the UK who between them have helped over 50,000 traumatised men, women and children since they opened their doors in 1985.

Parklife Weekender took place on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June 2011 in Platt Fields park, Manchester. The event’s second year was also its second sell out event as thousands of festival-goers quickly snapped up tickets for the UK’s hottest new city festival. Over the two days an impressive mix of electronic, indie and crossover artists performed including headliners Chase & Status and Two Door Cinema Club as well as Simian Mobile Disco, 2manyDJs, Annie Mac, Jamie xx, Everything Everything, Kelis, Katy B, Mark Ronson and many more.