Manchester skaters gifted free Parklife tickets following miser’s viral video “bullying” them

A GROUP of Manchester skaters have had the last laugh after they were offered free tickets to major music festival Parklife, after a video “bullying” them went viral.

Lukas Bradleus and his group of friends were practising skateboarding in Lincoln Square, Manchester on Saturday morning when they were filmed by publisher Mark Garner.

Mark, seemingly irate by the boys’ hobby, filmed the group whilst offering snide commentary over it, before sharing the footage and bizarrely branding the boys “The Virgins of Lincoln Square”.

Now though, Parklife co-founder Sacha Lord has reached out to Lukas and offered the group free VIP tickets to the event as an anti-bullying gesture.

The video, which racked up over one million views, shows the friends practising tricks in an open space in the square, away from pedestrians.

But Mark wasn’t happy, filming them for over a minute and branding them as “raging lunatics on skateboards trying to break legs”.

He explained how the skaters were outside his office and mentioned that they were “disturbing a couple of pigeons earlier”.

He goes on to film and commentate over the skateboarders saying: “Not one of them has been able to pull off any stunts so far as I can see.”

He then films one skater going past him, labelling him a “d**khead” as he attempts a trick.

At one point he seems more concerned for a nearby bin, saying: “That big black thing there where you put rubbish, it’s solid iron. They keep on smashing themselves into that.”

Towards the end of the video, Mark begins to question if the skaters have partners saying: “I wonder if they have girlfriends or not.

“I think they all must be virgins. I think in my day we would have described them as k**b ends.”

Mark shared the video to Twitter on Saturday with the caption: “The Virgins of Lincoln Square”.

The tweet soon gained significant backlash though, with over 2,000 comments and 1,400 retweets from users quick to question Mark’s issues with the skaters.

Lukas himself responded to the video, saying: “This video was posted of me and a few of my mates and has received a lot of attention mostly in support of us skateboarders.

“Sacha Lord, the co-owner of Parklife has contacted me today and offered us free VIP tickets to this year’s event.

“Thank you for the kind gesture.”

People were quick to show their support in the comment section, praising the kind-hearted gesture and defending the skater’s hobby.

One user said: “Great news. Ask the organisers to set up a couple of ramps for you.”

Another added: “Love it. Made my day. Enjoy it fella.”

A third commented: “A city without skateboarding isn’t worth visiting. I love walking by Abe at the weekend and seeing people skating, and keep up the good work.”

A fourth replied: “Brilliant and hope you all enjoy Parklife, everyone should ignore Gordo, he’s an out of touch grumpy old man.”

Speaking today, Parklife co-founder Sacha Lord said: “I was sent a video over the weekend, of some kids just minding their own business, having fun, practising on skateboards.

“The person behind the camera was commenting about them being virgins, breaking their legs…calling them d**kheads and I thought hang on, they are just out having fun.

“We forget that these kids were literally locked up for 18 months, not being able to see their friends. The more I watched the video, it felt like online bullying to me.

“We need to stand up to bullying, especially when it’s bullying kids. That’s why I reached out.

“I told them to ignore it, told them to carry on having fun and invited them as my guests for a VIP weekend at Parklife.

“Turns out Lukas who I spoke to was a Wu-Tang fan too, so I hope that when he’s in a field, with 80,000 kids having fun, the person behind the camera realises that as a city, we won’t stand for bullying.

“We come together and stand up to it.”

Parklife is an annual two-day music festival held in Heaton Park, Manchester and attracts over 80,000 spectators each year.

This year will see the festival headlined by The 1975, Fred Again, Aitch and The Prodigy.