Christopher BarrettPromoter Sacha Lord, co-founder of Manchester’s Parklife festival (cap. 80,000) and Warehouse Project (10,000) nightclub in the city, has stepped down from his role as night time economy advisor to Manchester major Andy Burnham.
The move follows the conclusion of a lengthy investigation by the Arts Council which has led it to seek to recover a £401,928 Culture Recovery Fund grant it made to Primary Event Solutions (PES), a company in which Lord owned a 30% share, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lord, who sold his stake in both Parklife and The Warehouse Project and left the LN Gaiety-owned projects last summer, said, “The emotional toll and experience over recent months has given me the opportunity to reflect and gradually step back from my role in Greater Manchester. With heartfelt thanks to the Mayor and his team, I have decided to continue in this direction and embrace a new chapter ahead – championing the sector on a national level with fresh focus and energy.”
The Arts Council issued a statement in which it said that following a thorough review of the application that PES submitted to the Culture Recovery Fund in 2021, it has decided to withdraw the grant that was awarded and will seek to recover the money.
The Arts Council said the following clause from the grant’s terms and conditions was breached by PES:
8.3.8 You have supplied us with any information that is wrong or misleading, either by mistake or because you were trying to mislead us.
In a statement it said, “We are not required by this clause to determine whether the misleading information was supplied deliberately. However, we have found that the applicant, Primary Event Solutions, breached this condition, whether by mistake or otherwise, leading us to withdraw the grant. We have contacted the liquidators and requested that they add Arts Council England as creditors.”
Lord said, “While we acknowledge the change in grant status, we appreciate that Arts Council England have found that there is no finding against the company that it deliberately misled the Arts Council in this application.
“The company and its former directors have continued to work closely with Arts Council England to evidence that grant funds were used appropriately to support staff wages and company stability during the pandemic.
“However, given the company’s current status in liquidation, and recognising that there are a small number of unintended oversights which have impacted the application’s clarity under the criteria, we accept that the grant status has been updated.”
Primary Event Solutions was put into administration in September 2023. The Arts Council investigation was launched in May last year after allegations were made against Lord in an article published by The Manchester Mill, which ran with the headline Did Sacha Lord cheat his way to £400,000 of public money during the pandemic?.
Sacha Lord’s career is explored in detail in an Access All Areas Backstage podcast, with an interview that takes in everything from him being shot at and petrol bombed back in the days of ‘Madchester’, to projecting a huge protest film above the Conservative Party Conference.
The interview covers Lord’s early career, which started with an event at the Haçienda in July 1994 and later saw him excite the inmates at Strangeways Prison by staging the first Warehouse Project, with Public Enemy, just metres away from the prison walls.
Among the many areas covered in the conversation are drug testing at events, the importance of sustaining grassroots talent, the need for artist exclusivity clauses, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, and him very publicly sticking two fingers up at Rishi Sunak.