Hacienda at 40: The highs, the lows, the £6m losses - as told by key figures behind 'greatest club on earth'

Back on the evening of May 21, 1982, a Manchester icon was born. The Hacienda nightclub would open its doors for the first time at a vast old yacht warehouse on Whitworth Street West, and would go on to become the "epicentre" of the acid house and Madchester music and cultural scene of the late 80s and 90s.

For those who raved there, it became one of the most important places on earth. For those who created, nurtured and controlled the operation of the club over its 15 years in the city, it would bring joy, frustration, elation and despair.

Now, 40 years on, many of those who were involved will be back to celebrate the club, on the site of where the Hacienda was, for an anniversary rave. Original club DJs will play tracks over a mammoth eight-hour celebration, which will also be streamed live across the world and raise funds for charity, from the car park of what is now the Hacienda Apartments.

Read more : Hacienda 40th anniversary rave to be shown on live stream across the world

It has also been a time to reflect on the extraordinary way the club came to the city - bankrolled by Manchester's Factory Records and New Order. While the club opened up on May 21, 1982, it would not be until 1986 that it really began to take off, with events like DJ Mike Pickering's legendary house night Nude filling the dancefloor and seeing clubbers queuing around the block.

The venue would witness, towards the end of its time, the rise of the superstar DJ, with the likes of Jon DaSilva, Graeme Park, DJ Paulette, Tom Wainwright and Dave Haslam all becoming regulars that drew in crowds flocking to Manchester for this cultural moment. As Graeme Park puts it: "There was nothing else like it, you had this beautifully designed building by Ben Kelly, with Peter Saville's amazing artwork inside, everything came together.

"And yet it was the only place you didn't have to worry about getting in, it didn't matter what you were wearing. I played a lot of venues, but it was the first time I'd witnessed builders next to barristers, students next to teachers, professionals, unemployed, blue collar, white collar, all off them were there off their tits, dancing together, nobody gave a f***, that was the summer of love.

"Despite what the southern media might say, it was the north and the Hacienda that was the catalyst for the rave culture that spread around Britain and then around Europe."