Parklife Headliners The 1975 Bring Out Manchester Mayor And Police To Honor Terror Attack Victims
Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Last night, Manchester band the 1975 headlined Parklife, their hometown music festival. Naturally, the band addressed last month’s horrific terrorist attack on an Ariana Grande show in Manchester. As NME reports, before the band started playing, they were joined by police, firefighters, and EMTs were were on the scene in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Newly-elected Manchester mayor Andy Burnham also said a few words about the importance of going to things like music festivals after an attack like that:
On the night of the attack and every hour since, our police, our NHS staff, our fire staff, all of our public services have been working to help people affected by the tragedy, to identify those responsible, and to bring us all together. Tonight, we think about all of those families who lost loved ones, we think about those who were injured, and those who were traumatized by the attack. And I’m here to thank you for your solidarity with them, for your solidarity with each other, and for staying true to what our city — Manchester — is all about.
The terrorists want to change us, they want to divide us. Don’t let them win. Don’t let them change Manchester. The fact you’re here tonight shows we’re not going to be beaten. So Parklife, stick together, stay strong, choose hope over fear and terror, and always choose love over hate.
The 1975 frontman Matty Healy called Burnham “a real mayor” and then asked for a “moment of noise,” rather than a moment of silence, to honor the first responders. Here’s some fan-made video:
The 1975 com o prefeito de Manchester no festival Parklife. pic.twitter.com/eOkviKLnhD
— The 1975 Brasil (@the1975online) June 10, 2017
During the band’s set, Healy also called for the resignation of British prime minister Theresa May: “Theresa May needs to resign. She needs to stop squatting in Number 10 with a coalition that sounds like an STI. It does! I don’t want DUP… One of the reasons the Tories’ campaign didn’t work is because all the young people showed up and said bollocks to that. Bollocks to nationalism.”
