'A night at Sankeys changed my life'

A woman who decided her career path thanks to a Manchester nightclub has shared her memories of the venue ahead of its reopening.

Sankeys launched in 1994 and and hosted shows by acts like Daft Punk, Bjork and The Chemical Brothers but shut in 2017.

The news that it is to return has been celebrated across the region, with DJ Jacinta Owen from St Helens saying the venue was "fundamental" to her wanting to become a DJ.

"I remember being there... on the dance floor and thinking 'Wow that's what I want to be. I want to be a DJ,'" she said.

"Everyone was there for good vibes. The music was on-point time and time again."

Jacinta said she was first introduced to Sankeys when she was 17 and working as an apprentice in an office above the club. Jacinta, now 28, said she would hear artists doing their soundchecks and knew she had to get in.

"Growing up in St Helens, just a small like working-class town, you don't have access to these nightclubs and venues," she said.

"I said to my work friend 'Let's just go, I need to experience this' and it was just so eye-opening. It was amazing."

She said at the time she was already heavily into electronic music and interested in DJing, but it was Sankeys that cemented her passion.

"I think it was really kind of poignant. I just thought 'I need to do this. I think this is my calling'," she said.

"I was such a timid person at the time then I started going out and meeting people and just getting immersed in this kind of world and I thought, 'This is where I'm meant to be. This is what I'm meant to do'."

Jacinta moved to Southampton in 2017 to study festival and events management at university, where she joined the DJ society and got her first decks. Around the same time Sankeys closed down, which she said felt like "the end of an era."

It was the third time the club had closed since it originally launched in 1994 as Sankeys Soap in Beehive Mill, Ancoats.

It quickly built a reputation to rival big hitters like Sheffield's Gatecrasher, London's Ministry of Sound and Cream in Liverpool, before it closed four years later due to what its owners at the time described as "dwindling numbers".

After a few attempts to reopen, it was revived in 2000 and once again found itself at the heart of the UK's clubbing scene, being named as Mixmag's Best UK Club in 2004.

However, in May 2006, a rift in the club's management led to its demise, with its owner announcing Sankeys Soap would close once and for all.

Four months later, the newly-titled Sankeys opened in Beehive Mill with the catchphrase of "a new beginning".

The new incarnation went from strength to strength, building a reputation that saw it named DJ Mag's number one club in the world in 2010 and spawning Sankeys clubs in other cities across the globe.

But it came to an end again in 2017, when its owners posted on Facebook that its Beehive Mill home had been sold to a property developer.

They said that move meant that with "great regret" and a "very heavy heart", they had to "close Sankeys Manchester with immediate effect".

Now, nearly ten years later, the club is set to re-open later in a new 500-capacity city centre space where phones will be banned.

Jacinta said she managed to get tickets for one of the upcoming events, and even got back in touch with her old work friend and made plans to meet there.

"I'm excited to see what it's like, see if it's going to have those elements of the old venue and what's different," she said.

"I like the no phones policy. You want to be able to relax and be free in these spaces. You don't want to be worried about someone filming you or accidentally being in the back of someone's video.

"I think that's something that really needs to be implemented across venues and I hope it sticks. I just want it to do well and thrive."

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