Hacienda legend Sasha returning to Manchester to play new open-air rave venue

A new open-air nightclub opening in the city centre will feature a headline performance from Hacienda legend Sasha as it launches a space 'curated by the people of Manchester'.

The Progress Centre, located at Charlton Place in Ardwick, will feature a six-month summer season featuring weekly events from local, national and international brands, artists and performers.

Inspired by European clubbing scenes, the centre will feature day and night club sessions and food and drink stalls under an ‘open-air but covered’ dancefloor.

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Artists to appear at the Progress Centre between April and September will include Locus, Slapfunk, Freak, Meat Free, The Ghost, Get-Traum, Hit & Run, Freak Queer Rave, 23 Degrees, You&me and Appetite.

DJ Sasha, once nicknamed the 'first DJ pin-up' and the ‘son of God’ by Mixmag, will headline a gig on April 29, alongside Mr. Sosa, Gemma Arnold, and Gareth Cole. The performer made his name as a regular DJ at Manchester’s legendary club the Hacienda in the 1980s after being taken under the wing of famed DJ Jon DaSilva.

The Progress Centre comes as the result of two previous temporary party spaces and a series of feedback sessions with music fans in Manchester to create a new space that ‘included the voices of the people’.

The Ardwick venue will feature sound systems from Funktion One and a custom lighting rig inspired by Venice's 'magical garden' nightclub, After Caposile.

The centre comes from the team behind The Loft, Animal Crossing Music and the Summer of Love festival, including promoter Olli Ryder.

“For us to include the voices of the people in the space curation further amplifies that it will be fit