Sankeys Is Breathing Again: David Vincent on Belonging, Bananas Dancefloors, and the No-Phones Future

Interview Mike Moggi Mannix

David Vincent has always had that rare clubland superpower: he can talk about a dancefloor like it’s a living thing — something you feed, protect, and occasionally wrestle back from the brink.

As the original founder and owner of Manchester institution Sankeys, he’s seen the place evolve from myth to memory and now back into headline territory, as the brand returns in a new era that’s deliberately stripping things back to the point: sound, sweat, community, and that shared moment you can’t rewind. The wider scene has been watching closely. Sankeys’ return has already been framed as a proper cultural comeback story, with talk of a more intimate capacity, a no-phone policy, and a focus on the feeling over the footage. But when we catch up, Dave isn’t pitching a nostalgia museum. He’s talking like someone who’s found his keys again after nine years of being locked out of his own house — excited, a bit knackered, and quietly buzzing that the doors are open and the subs are doing what subs are meant to do.

“Dave, what’s the craic?” — The catch-up that sounds like a reopening

There’s a particular rhythm to how proper club people greet each other. No formalities. A smoking area that never closes.

David Vincent: Hi mate, you okay?
Mike Mannix: Dave, what’s the craic, man?

It’s instantly human. No press-release stiffness. No “delighted to announce.” Just two voices linking up while the reopening dust is still settling. Dave’s about a month into being back “in it,” and you can hear that reality in the way he speaks — half-proud, half-processing, the way you are when something big finally starts behaving like it’s real.

David Vincent: Yeah, it’s getting there… settling… learning about it… what hours when open… various things about the venue staff DJs..

That line — learning about it — lands. Because this isn’t just reopening a door; it’s relearning a machine. New room, new systems, new rhythms. The name is legendary, but the day-to-day is still graft. You don’t just switch a cultural institution back on like a lamp. You coax it.

Club of the Month energy — and the weird magic of Manchester Approval

Then Dave drops it casually, like it happened while he was making a brew.

David Vincent: I just saw that

we were named Club of the Month on Beatport..

Mike Mannix: Saw that, thats wicked!

There’s a small pause, the kind where you can hear a smile through the phone. In today’s climate — where venues are closing faster than they’re opening — that kind of nod matters. It says this isn’t just sentimentality. It’s working.

But Dave isn’t doing victory laps. He’s doing that Manchester thing where you accept the compliment, then immediately downplay it as if praise is suspicious until proven otherwise.

David Vincent: In Manchester… it’s not really that close of a place…

He laughs. I laugh. We both know what he means. Manchester doesn’t hand out approval lightly. If the city’s starting to lean in again, that’s earned.

—

Does it feel like the old days? Not exactly — and that’s the point

I ask the obvious question — because readers will be thinking it too. Does it have that same feral electricity from the sweat-on-the-ceiling era. The nights that turned into legends before you’d even found your coat.

Mike Mannix: Has it got the same Soap vibe it had back years ago?
David Vincent: No,

it’s never got the same vibe as the original one, its different but… it’s very good!

It’s honest. And that honesty is refreshing. You can’t recreate a time period. The old Sankeys belonged to its era. What you can do is build something that feels vital now.

Dave leans into what’s clicking in this new chapter.

David Vincent: People like the 360 that we’ve got with the DJs.

That’s not a throwaway detail. A 360 booth changes everything. It stops the crowd behaving like spectators and turns them into participants. No front row. No safe distance. You’re in it together — DJ in the middle, crowd wrapped around, energy moving in circles instead of lines. It’s less performance, more ritual.

And that’s the shift. Less hierarchy. More communion.

Back at the helm: “It feels like I’m belonging to something again”

This is where the conversation tilts into something deeper. I ask what it feels like to be back properly running it again. There’s a pause. Real life cuts in. He excuses himself briefly.

David Vincent: Just hold on for a second.

He comes back. And then he says the line that underpins the whole interview.

David Vincent: Yeah, it feels good. It feels like

I’m belonging to something again. You know, for the last nine years, I wasn’t belonging to anything for real…

That’s not branding. That’s identity. For some people, clubs aren’t just businesses — they’re ecosystems you grow inside of. Being outside of that for nearly a decade? That’s not just a career shift. That’s a dislocation.

David Vincent: It’s good to be able to belong to something and create something again. It’s a good feeling.

You can hear it. Not hype. Not nostalgia. Just relief. Purpose. The kind of grounding you get when you’re back doing the thing that makes sense in your bones.

—

The plan: summer shutdown, September return, and bigger moves ahead

Once the emotional dust settles, we get into logistics. Because Dave’s not just back for vibes. There’s a roadmap.

David Vincent: We’re going to shut down over the summer and do a few more refurbishment bits that we couldn’t do over the winter break.

Classic club reality. Open with what you’ve got. Tweak while it’s alive. Improve as you go.

David Vincent: We’re going to reopen in September…

And he’s not stopping at a single weekly anchor.

David Vincent: …probably add a different night to the calendar. And then next year goes three nights.

That’s the growth curve. Stabilise. Expand. Build rhythm. Create reasons for different tribes to call it home.

Then he casually drops two ideas that feel anything but small.

David Vincent: Then we’re looking at opening and

doing a festival with Malta next year… and… bring back Tribal Gathering

There it is. Not just a club revival. A cultural ecosystem rebuild. If Tribal Gathering returns under the Sankeys umbrella, that’s not just an event — it’s a statement. It says this isn’t about surviving. It’s about expanding.

When the decks froze and chaos made a classic

Every reopening has that one moment that sums it all up. Not the polished headline set. Not the Instagram-ready clip. The messy, unpredictable, pure clubland story.

I ask him about standout moments.

Mike Mannix: Any standout moments for you?
David Vincent: I think when Pirate Copy played the Shapeshifters, it went absolutely bananas.

He’s laughing as he tells it. Then comes the twist.

David Vincent: It was a bit of a fluke… the decks froze up and his USB wasn’t working. And then he got a USB off somebody and the only track that he recognized was the Shapeshifters.

That’s dancefloor fate. Tech fails. Community steps in. One random track detonates the room.

Mike Mannix: That’s wicked. That was meant to happen like that.

And then Dave adds the kind of brutally honest aside that makes you love him even more.

David Vincent: And… to be honest, I don’t really like the song, but the place went mental haha.

We’re both laughing. Because that’s club culture in a nutshell. You don’t have to personally love the tune to love what it does to a room. When the crowd lifts, your taste takes a back seat.

It went off. That’s what matters. And he’s right. A month in, you can feel whether something’s breathing on its own or being kept alive artificially. From the sound of it, Sankeys is breathing.

The feedback’s strong. The 360 booth is landing. The no-phones ethos is shifting behaviour in the room. People are dancing instead of documenting. And Dave — after nearly a decade on the outside — sounds like a man who’s reconnected with his natural habitat. Back to creating something people can belong to.

Sankeys isn’t trying to rewind the clock. It’s not chasing ghosts. It’s doing something braver: rebuilding culture in real time. And if the first month is anything to go by, Manchester’s ready to dance around the booth again.