It’s the hit reality show that has made celebrities out of countless attractive young hopefuls, with its newest season debuting to an audience of 2.4million UK viewers.
Now, as the season 8 drama continues to build, one Manchester bar has revealed plans to launch a new series of weekly watch parties with endless pornstar martinis, frozen strawberry daiquiris and giant street food sharing platters.
Taking place every Wednesday night throughout the show’s summer run at The Shack in the Northern Quarter, fans of the hit UK dating show can sink endless cocktails as they catch up with all the Islander’s romantic drama.
Image: The Shack
Image: The Shack Manchester
Image: The Shack Manchester
Priced from just £20 per person, Love Island stans will be treated to huge platters of food including pickle-topped fried chicken burger sliders, chicken and salad-stuffed wraps, and heaps of fries, as well as bottomless drinks including prosecco, mimosas and bellinis.
And that’s not all. Also included in the £20 per person drinks package are a range of beers from Coors, Corona and Red Stripe, and ciders from Aspall and The Shack’s own house line.
If you really want to go all out, though, you can opt to upgrade to the premium drinks package for an extra fiver.
ADVERTISEMENT
For that, you’ll also be treated to non-stop pornstar martinis, frozen strawberry daiquiris and a selection of house spirits and mixers including vodka, gin and rum throughout the show’s duration.
It certainly sounds like our type on paper.
Love Island screens from 9pm on ITV1 every night except for Saturdays, with bottomless boozy showings at The Shack held every Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
To book your table for the next showing, click here.
Parklife 2026 – stage times, line-up, tickets, travel, and everything else you need to know
Daisy Jackson
Parklife 2026 is heading back to the fields of Heaton Park in Manchester this month, for another huge instalment of the legendary local festival.
Tens of thousands of fans will be making their way to the park ready for the party of the year, which attracts the biggest names in dance, electronic, pop and house music.
With headline sets this year from Zara Larsson, Calvin Harris, Skepta and Sammy Virji, it’s shaping up to be another epic year.
Parklife is consistently one of the biggest events in the Manchester cultural calendar and has lined up plenty of new developments this year.
From brand-new stages to that fancy VIP area unveiled last year, plus all the travel, tickets, and other info you need to know is below.
When is Parklife 2026?
This year’s Parklife is taking place on Saturday 20 June and Sunday 21 June.
As a reminder, this is a non-camping festival, so you’ll need to navigate your way there and home again each day.
Gates will be open between 12pm and 11pm on Saturday, and 1pm and 11pm on Sunday.
Last entry will be strictly 5pm on both days.
Stage times
Parklife 2026 will bring huge names back to Heaton Park. Credit: Sam Neill
Parklife has shared its full list of stage times and splits ahead of the big weekend, with live updates dropping on the app over the weekend.
You can see the full list of stage times HERE, but I’ll round up the major headliners below too.
On Saturday, East End Dubs will headline the new Panorama Stage from 9.30pm, with Rossi. on stage beforehand from 8pm.
Sammy Virji will headline the main Valley Stage from 9.30pm, with Skepta performing between 8pm and 9pm.
As for Sunday, the Valley Stage will be headlined by Calvin Harris from 9.25pm, Zara Larsson from 7.40pm, and Rudim3ntal from 6pm.
The Panorma Stage will have KETTAMA on from 8pm and Chris Stussy from 9.30pm.
Tickets for Parklife 2026
Parklife tickets are £100.75 each for Saturday, and £105.85 each for Sunday, with tickets still on sale.
You can see the latest availability and grab your tickets for Saturday HERE or Sunday HERE.
Weekend tickets for both days are also still available at £161.75 – see those HERE.
VIP and Backstage tickets and upgrades
The new ‘Backstage’ VIP viewing area at Parklife 2025The new ‘Backstage’ VIP bar area at Parklife 2025
Last year, Parklife unveiled its new-look VIP and Backstage areas right in the heart of the festival site, with dedicated viewing areas overlooking The Valley stage.
A VIP ticket also gets you fast-track entry to the festival, posher loos, a VIP cocktail bar, a separate street food market, and even access to a hair and makeup salon.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you really go all out on the Backstage ticket, that gets you an even posher VIP zone to hang out in, backstage toilets, covered seating areas, a pamper station, and a premium backstage bar.
You can upgrade to VIP for £46.05 on Saturday HERE, or Sunday HERE, or make your whole weekend VIP for £62.85 HERE.
Travel pass and how to get to Parklife
Parklife takes place up at Heaton Park, and while a lot of festival-goers do choose to walk home after the music stops, there are a lot of public transport and dedicated services to help you get home safe too.
The Parklife Travel Pass offers the best flexibility and the quickest ways to get to the festival as it covers any bus or tram service, including the direct Parklife Shuttle Bus.
The Travel Pass costs £8 for one day, or £14.95 for the weekend, and you can purchase it on the Bee Network app.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trams will operate every seven minutes between Victoria and Heaton Park – use the Heaton Park stop for entry to the festival, but bear in mind this stop will close from 9pm so you’ll need to use Bowker Vale to get home after this time.
The Parklife Shuttle Bus runs throughout the day, departing from Minshull Street to right outside the festival site. The first bus will leave at 10.30am on Saturday and 11.30am on Sunday, while the last buses will go at 4.30pm on both days. For return, departures are from outside the Woodthorpe pub by the West Gate to Shudehill, starting from 6.30pm and continuing until everyone is off the festival site.
Official car parking is available through the Parklife app, for spaces in the Sheepfoot Lane car park. Bear in mind there’ll be a number of road closures which may cause delays leaving the car park.
There is no longer an official pick-up point, with Sainbury’s no longer in use for pick-up and drop-off. Instead, those being collected from the festival should organise an area at least 1km away from the park.
Weather forecast
It’s looking like pretty great weather for Parklife 2026 so far (which is a relief because the last few years have been wet).
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the Met Office, Manchester will remain rain-free throughout both days of Parklife.
On Saturday, you can expect some cloud and lots of sunshine, with highs of 22º and lows of 14º.
Sunday will be much warmer, reaching 26º and getting as low as 17º.
The Hangar stage is so 2025 – this year, Parklife will be debuting a brand-new Panorama Stage, with a whopping curved 100m LED screen.
The festival’s new arrival will also have on-stage and behind-booth access, plus multi-tiered dance platforms right across the surrounding festival site.
ADVERTISEMENT
Parklife has shared new CGIs and a video of how the stage will look and this looks like it’s about to push the festival to a new level.
Banned items, lockers, and more
The list of banned items for Parklife 2026 is long, and includes the obvious (no drugs, no weapons, no glass) and the less obvious (no bikes, dogs, or hover-boards).
You are allowed to take an umbrella but it must be a compact one, can take sun cream but it needs to be in a 200ml or less original container, and you can take in an empty plastic bottle up to 500ml which you can refill at water points around the festival site.
Make sure you check the full list of banned items HERE so you don’t get caught out.
There are also lockers on site this year that you can pre-book, which you can access throughout the day for peace of mind while you party.
Manchester United set to release two classic remake kits, including a ‘blackout’ shirt
Danny Jones
Manchester United are reportedly planning to release not just one, but another two classic remake kits, based on one of their most recognisable shirts of all time.
As many other teams have done for special anniversaries and limited edition strips, one of them is set to be a ‘blackout’ version of the iconic design, too.
Having already dropped a re-release of the 1990-92 ‘snowflake’ away kit this past April, along with various other bits of lifestyle/casualwear, the success of their retro range needs no explanation.
With that in mind, supporters who remember the initial Adidas era, football fashionistas and collectors alike will no doubt be clamouring to get their hands on either or both of these shirts.
The right-hand side is an educated prediction by the outlet. (Credit: Footy Headlines)
Based on the same adidas Originals template initially used for the 1986-88- home kit, according to the ever-reliable Footy Headlines, a similar faithful recreation is scheduled to go on sale later this year.
We’ve already heard rumblings of a Man United fourth kit expected to be added to their rotation for the upcoming campaign, but this is thought to be separate from the match-worn 2026/27 alternate.
As you can see, the rumoured ’86 remake by United will mark 30 years since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson first took charge of the club, before going on to spend the best of three decades there himself.
Featuring the traditional ‘adi trefoil’ logo and the famous Sharp Electronics sponsor on the front, as well as the sublimated old school pattern – just as seen with the aforementioned modern edition of the ’90-92 jersey – the second version will be exactly the same, only, you guessed it: all black.
With the INEOS ownership group clearly looking to double down on nostalgia and the improving mood around the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ now that they’re back in the Champions League, revenues already look to be on the rise.
Ruben Amorim famously turned this down – but not Michael Carrick…
The retro range has become just the latest of several new money spinners for the Red Devils as they look to get their finances back on track, as well as their performances on the pitch.
This summer transfer window is also now open, and with one deal already said to be done and at least a couple more in the pipeline, the income from merchandising will no doubt help to fund at least part of their various lots of these deals this year.
It isn’t just new players they have to pay for either, as it’s also costing them north of £1 million to returf the pitch inside the ground – and they still have the prospect of a new stadium to replace Old Trafford, let’s not forget.
Georgina Pellant -
29th June 2022 
