Nine years since it shut its doors, legendary nightclub Sankeys is officially returning to its hometown of Manchester.
Reopening in the city where it all began, the iconic nightclub will throw open its doors over the last weekend of January. Aye, you may want to rethink those dry Jan plans.
Sankeys MCR promises to open with all the components of good clubbing: a no phone policy (joining Warehouse Project), no VIP areas and an intimate 500-capacity limit. There will also be a new area for chilling – and don’t worry, Sankeys promises that it will keep its immersive ‘LED matrix grid installation’.
Creative Director, David Vincent said: ‘What we’re creating is an intimate underground club with a chill out room. We will only be open one night a week on the Saturday. There will be no VIP or phones allowed on the dancefloor – everyone is a VIP.
‘People need to stop taking pictures and start dancing to the beat.’
In 1994, the famous club was opened as Sankeys Soap in a vacant soap factory in Ancoats by Andy Spiro and Christ Wright. It grew in popularity and became known for launching the careers of emerging talents, including debut performances from The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Solomun and David Guetta. Sankeys was crowned the Best UK Club by Mixmag in 2004 and the Best Club in the World by DJ Mag in 2010.
The club, which will open in the city centre, said the new Sankeys will continue this tradition in championing up and coming house, tech house and techno DJs alongside ‘a selection of classic Sankeys names’.
In May 2006 Sankeys Soap closed briefly after a disagreement between management, and later reopened as just Sankeys in Beehive Mill in the Northern Quarter. It then finally closed in 2017 after the building was sold to a property developer.
Sankeys’ return may not come as surprise to some super fans. The club hinted at its big return on Instagram in July, in a post saying: ‘This week Manchester, and the UK, has been blessed with a homecoming of our very own, Oasis. We think Manchester deserves another homecoming… Definitely, maybe?’
The launch party is planned for Friday January 30, and Saturday January 31. The lineup hasn’t yet been released. Sankeys will then be open every Saturday night from February 7, and it will also run a monthly Tribal Sessions residency.
Tickets go on sale on Friday November 28 at 9am here.
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