Manchester International Festival
A biennial arts and culture festival which focuses on bringing new creativity and innovation to Manchester from all over the world.
The organisation was established in 2005. The team is based in Blackfriars House, just off Deansgate in Central Manchester, though it is due to move to the £110 million The Factory by 2020.
MIF takes place in venues across the city and the 2017 event was one of the biggest to date, offering ’18 extraordinary days’ of arts, film, theatre, dance and public participation.
Over the years it has hosted many cutting-edge examples of modern creativity. These have included an art installation by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen responding to the Iraq War, a new stage adaption of The Pianist and in 2009 a collaboration between Elbow and The Hallé orchestra.
Many of the related events are world debuts and have never been performed before. 2017’s Festival offered a new angle through the community programme ‘My Festival’ and opened with a parade of Manchester individuals in a public showcase titled ‘What Is the City but The People?’.
Other 2017 features included the show Fatherland at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Jane Horrocks’ Cotton Panic! which gave a unique take on the historic Cotton Famine. Manchester Street Poem developed by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith from Underworld explored the issue of homelessness.