Warehouse Project

A brewery, an air-raid shelter, a railway depot

The Warehouse Project began in 2006 as a joint venture between Sacha Lord and Sam Kandel, both of whom had come up through Sankeys, and its first home was the disused Boddingtons brewery in Strangeways. From 2007 to 2011 it ran beneath Manchester Piccadilly on Store Street, in a space that had previously served as an air-raid shelter. Mixmag voted it the best club in the UK in 2007, a year after it started.

Two seasons at Victoria Warehouse in Trafford Park followed in 2012 and 2013, then a return to Store Street — which the organisers called their spiritual home — from 2014 to 2018. Since 2019 the run has taken place at Depot Mayfield, the refurbished railway depot beside Piccadilly. DJ Mag put it fourth in its Top 100 Clubs poll in 2025, up two places, listing a 10,000 capacity and calling the operation a juggernaut and among the most influential UK clubs in decades.

The record is not uncomplicated. Two people died in connection with the venue in its Victoria Warehouse period: Souvik Pal, found in an adjacent canal after New Year's Eve 2012, and Nick Bonnie, who died of a drug overdose in September 2013. Both prompted scrutiny of how security and welfare are run at events of this size.

The season as the unit of work

The structural idea is the part that travelled. Rather than a weekly or monthly residency, the club sells a block: a run of separately curated nights from mid-September to the turn of the year, with occasional bank holiday dates bolted on. DJ Mag credits the format with shifting how nightlife is marketed in Britain, from recurring line-ups to seasonal programming, and the model has been copied widely enough that it now reads as ordinary.

Outside the season, activity is sporadic — one-off events elsewhere in Manchester, plus international takeovers in the Netherlands and Australia. The first event staged outside the UK was in Rotterdam in 2023, with further dates there in 2025.

Two in-house brands anchor the calendar. Homobloc is the queer all-dayer, now in its seventh edition; Repercussion is a day-to-night festival that uses the full expanse of Depot Mayfield. Both are programmed by the club rather than bought in, which is how it keeps identity in a schedule otherwise built from touring headliners.

Who owns it now

LN Gaiety, the Live Nation-linked promoter group, first took a stake in the business in 2021. Sacha Lord sold his remaining shares in both The Warehouse Project and its sister festival Parklife to LN Gaiety and departed on 18 July 2024, leaving to concentrate on his role as night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester. Parklife, founded in 2010, went with him in the same transaction.

Sam Kandel has stayed with the business and remains its public voice. Speaking in June 2026 as the anniversary programme was finalised, he framed the milestone plainly: reaching twenty years was a large moment, and the club had always been about progression and pushing boundaries where possible.

The twentieth season

WHP26 opens on Friday 18 September 2026 with KI/KI, and the announced calendar currently runs into mid-December, with Continental GT presents Steppers on 12 December the latest date confirmed at the time of writing. Rampa and &ME of Keinemusik take the opening weekend on 19 September. Homobloc lands on 26 September, led by Kim Petras with Honey Dijon back to back with Derrick Carter, plus Job Jobse, DJ Paulette, Cobrah, I. Jordan, Dorian Electra, S.A.S.S. and Palms Trax. Solomun follows on 25 September, his first Manchester appearance in five years.

October carries most of the weight. Worried About Henry on 9 October is the season's only drum and bass night, headlined by Andy C's ALiVe show with Bou back to back with Hedex, Hybrid Minds, Kings of the Rollers and Sigma. Hannah Laing brings her DOOF concept on 16 October with an exclusive back-to-back alongside Maddix; Eric Prydz plays a Concourse-only show on 17 October; Overmono curate 30 October with James Blake back to back with Joy Orbison, Helena Hauff back to back with DJ Bone, Moodymann, Blawan, Aurora Halal, Blackhaine and Rainy Miller. Max Dean's NEXUP returns on 31 October.

November and December take in Klangkuenstler on 14 November in a Teletech collaboration, the flagship 20 Years of The Warehouse Project show on 27 November, XXL Techno on 28 November, and Tiësto on 11 December, his first Manchester performance in thirteen years. By late June 2026, shows from You&Me, Interplanetary Criminal, Duke Dumont, The Streets and Tiësto had sold out, with Solomun and Overmono down to final tickets.

The 27 November anniversary night is the one that reads as a statement of taste rather than of scale. Rossi. and Luciano lead the Depot room after a three-hour warm-up from Mella Dee, with Enzo Siragusa back to back with Saoirse and Jamback back to back with Marsolo. Concourse takes Cam Stockman, Obskür, Locky back to back with M-High, Boss Priester, Olive F and Emma 2000; Modern Funktion host Archive with Bullet Tooth, Sweely and Marlie; Vault runs Halfpint, Ranger Trucco, Jamie Fielding, Nautica and Lily C-D.

A fourth room, and a paper trail

The physical change for the twentieth season is Vault, a 1,000-capacity stage built in Depot Mayfield's former ticket hall, joining Depot, Concourse and Archive. It made its public debut at Homobloc on 26 September, curated for that night by the Glasgow collective Ponyboy with Lady Shaka, Armana Khan and Med10 back to back with Luca Eck. Beyond the four rooms, larger events also spill into the neighbouring Star & Garter and the Freight Island food site, and a rooftop area was added in summer 2024.

The anniversary has also produced an unusual amount of documentation for a club. Twenty Years In Manchester is a six-minute film by Leigh Powis, shot across three nights on some of the last remaining stock of Kodak Ektachrome. Alongside it sit an outdoor exhibition in Spinningfields, a podcast series and a printed magazine covering the artists, promoters and communities involved since 2006.

The recorded side runs through Apple Music. WHP26 mixes are being released exclusively in Spatial Audio via Apple Music Club, selected sets are streamed live for free, and an archive vault is publishing previously unreleased recordings from across the club's two decades — the first serious attempt to make a body of work out of what has always been an ephemeral format.