Aitch: I'm buzzin' to be headlining Manchester's Parklife

Aitch has said one of his "main goals" has been achieved after he was announced as headliner at the Parklife festival in Manchester.

The rapper has been revealed as one of two local acts topping the bill on 10 and 11 June, alongside The 1975.

He said he was "buzzin'", as it had been one of his ambitions to headline, "so for it to be happening now at this point is unreal".

"I don't care what happens after this, I'm happy," he added.

Aitch's debut album, Close to Home, went to number two in the UK charts in 2022.

At the time, he told the BBC he had "still got goals to achieve", adding: "I'm not where I want to be yet."

The 1975, who formed in the nearby Cheshire town of Wilmslow, released their fifth album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, in 2022.

The band, who were recently announced as headliners for Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee in May, will play the second night of Parklife.

The two-day festival, which takes place in the city's Heaton Park, will be expanded to 10 stages for this year's edition, which will mark the 10-year anniversary of it moving to the site.

Also headlining stages will be fast-rising producer and performer Fred Again and dance legends The Prodigy, while the event will also see sets from Mercury Prize winner Little Simz, singer-songwriters Self Esteem and Raye, and rap legends Wu Tang Clan and Nas.

The event's organisers said it was "the go-to home of the biggest and the best" and they were "ready to serve up the line-up of the summer as a melting pot of the sounds defining 2023 and beyond".

They said more than 200,000 people had pre-registered for the event, which has previously had a capacity of less than half that amount, and fans were "encouraged to grab their tickets as soon as possible" when they went on sale on Friday to "book your place at the festival party of the summer".

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