arklife has returned once more to give us another amazing weekend in Heaton Park in Manchester. Last year was the first time         we'ev ventured to the festival. The lineup was incredible, the weather was looking good, the beautiful scenery of Heaton park. We were walking through sunlit paths guided by trees and a wonderful lake to our left. Its rare for a festival entrance to have such beautifl walkways and this just got us even more excited for the weekend. Of course it was definitely unusual to go to a weekend where we weren't camping but insead staying in a hotel. It was different for us, usually we takcle the itty bitty camping aspects but this time we were blessed with hot showers and clean bedding for the weekend. We couldn't have been happier.

Security was fast and friendly and before we knew it we were in there exploring. We probably spent the first hour or so walking round, finding our bearings and had a look at the stages. We stumbled upon a double story Nandos with a DJ booth on top, was truly a sight to see and a nice ittle place to eat chicken and enjoy quality tunes. We

got a general feel for the place and made our way to the main stage where we 

listened to George Ezra and his peaceful, mellow sing-a-long songs. Of course 

everyone went mental when 'Budapest' came on. All of the crowd was loving him...

especially the ladies! As far as sing a long acts go George was definitely one of 

the more fun and upbeat acts we've seen. We felt like we had seen enough for 

peyes, a tent called 'Drop The Mustard'. Drop the Mustard had a lot of acts we were

eager to see all weekend across both the days. Seeing DJ master Oliver Heldens

and Nina Kravis both on the same day after each other was surely something we

wont ever experience again.

We walked around slowly killing time, checking out stages like the Temple stage

and went to a small woodland stage where we watched MK rock a crowd of 1000's

of people. The crowd went nuts when he dropped 'Powerless'. We then decided just

to have a chill for a while and sit in the Manchester sun, look around at all the people

smiling and dancing. We made our way to 'Bugged Out!' to go see DJ legend 

Flatboy Slim in action. His hypnotising beat surely got the crowd rivalled as bobbing

heads and cheers felll before him. We quickly got tired and fell ill so we decided to

go and get some food and recover just in time to make our way to the main stage to 

see the first headling act: Disclosure. Wow. Just wow. Disclosure had such an 

amazing atmosphere, probably one of the best of the weekend 100%. Opening with

their hit 'White Noise' followed by 'F For You' got the crowd pumped for one of the 

best acts of the weekend by a long shot. The lights were well suited and we sure were sad to say goodbye when their set finished. Don't think we've ever been so sad to see an act leave the stage.

We made our way back to the hotel to recooperate from a heavy day and prepare ourselves for the next day. We arrived on Sunday

for another amazing tranquil walk through the forest scenery and made our way straight to the main stage to see hit artist Labrinth perform some of his incredible upbeat songs like 'Let it Be' and one song I was particularly looking forward to 'Jealous'. His soulful performance was a great kick start to the weekend and we decided to then mix it up a bit and go Hot Since 82 and afterwards enjoyed a bit of Jackmaster. Everyone was sweaty, everyone was loving it, the bass felt good and the vibe was on another level. Eventually we decided to leave and go see Hannah Wants. We've seen her quite a few times before but something was different this                                                                                                                   time, it was the music we all know and love but something felt
                                                                                                                  right. The feel was incredible and we looked around seeing 

                                                                                                                  massive smiles on everyones faces and then it hit us, you 

                                                                                                                  dont need to camp to have that same festival experience, the

                                                                                                                  feel is universal. As long as the music is good and you've got

                                                                                                                  the people there thats all that matters. We left after the set 

                                                                                                                  had finished and made our way to see Rudimental on the 

                                                                                                                  main stage. Their sing a long songs brought people from 

                                                                                                                  everywhere to enjoy their send off show and what a send off

                                                                                                                  show it was. We weren't that involved with Rudimental we just

                                                                                                                  sat back and enjoyed it but it was still something to be seen,

                                                                                                                  definitely keeping our eyes out for any upcoming shows

                                                                                                                  they're going to be playing. Half way through Rudimental we 

                                                                                                                  went to get a quick burger and walk over to Duke Dumont. 

                                                                                                                  The tent was absolutely heaving but we managed to push our way in to get a good view. It was at this point where we started to realise that our weekend was coming to an end. We didn't stay long and made our way to choose between two final acts which were performing: Ten Walls or DJ EZ. We settled on DJ EZ at the Temple stage and as we made our way down we saw a sea of enthuisasts listening to and enjoying his garage classics. The sun had fully set now as we were enjoying the last bit of music we'd hear all weekend. The crowd was loving it, blasting songs like Feed em To the Lions and was especially pleasing to hear him mix 'Parklife' into his set.

Heaton Park was truly something else and with the 2016 lineup coming soon we've definitely got huge expectations for it. If you're skeptical about not enjoying it for the lack of camping then dont be, the atmosphere and vibe is still there and is a feel different from other festivals.