Manchester International Festival
| Manchester International Festival | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Festival |
| Dates | July (dates vary) |
| Frequency | |
| Venue | Multiple across Manchester |
| Location(s) |
Manchester, UK (office: Blackfriars House, Parsonage, Manchester M3 2JA) |
| Coordinates | 53°29′0.4413″N 02°14′52.0985″W / 53.483455917°N 2.247805139°WCoordinates: 53°29′0.4413″N 02°14′52.0985″W / 53.483455917°N 2.247805139°W |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Years active | 9 |
| Inaugurated | 2007 |
| Founder | Alex Poots (Manchester City Council) |
| Previous event | 2–19 July 2015 |
| Next event | 29 June – 16 July 2017 |
| Attendance | 259,648 (2015) |
| Area | International |
| Budget | £12 m for 2015 festival * £2.5 m Manchester City Council * £1.4 m Arts Council England |
| Leader |
John McGrath (Artistic Director) |
| Filing status | Registered charity |
| People | Christine Cort (Managing Director) Fiona Gasper (Executive Director) Matthias von Hartz (Artistic Advisor: AA) Mary Anne Hobbs (AA) Michael Morris (AA) Hans Ulrich Obrist (AA) Peter Saville (AA) |
| Member |
Tom Bloxham (Board Chairman) Luthfur Rahman (Board Member:BM) Keith Black (BM) Jeremy Deller (BM) Steve Downes (BM) Joyce Hytner (BM) Brian McMaster (BM) Chris Oglesby (BM) Richard Paver (BM) Nancy Rothwell (BM) Peter Salmon (BM) Kully Thiarai (BM) |
| Sponsor | Various |
| Website | |
| mif.co.uk | |
The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester. The festival is a biennial event, first taking place in June–July 2007, and subsequently recurring in the summers of 2009, 2011, 2013. MIF17 is due to take place 29 June to 16 July 2017. The organisation is based in Blackfriars House, adjacent to Blackfriars Bridge but is due to move to a new £110 million new home, The Factory, by the beginning of 2020.
The Festival was promoted and initiated with three pre-festival commissions. The first of these took place in November 2005, when Gorillaz performed live at the Manchester Opera House. Recordings of these performances were later released as the Demon Days Live DVD. The second was The Schools Festival Song, a new piece by Ennio Morricone and Nicholas Royle sung by an 8,000-strong schools' choir, organised by Young Voices, which took place on 4 December 2006.
The third was an art installation, in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen, as a response to the 2003 Iraq war and as a tribute to British service personnel killed in that conflict. It was exhibited in the Great Hall of Manchester Central Library from 28 February to 15 July 2007.
The first edition of the Festival ran from 28 June - 15 July 2007. The Festival's showpiece production was Monkey: Journey To The West, a re-working of the ancient Chinese legend Journey to the West by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, collaborating on their first major project since Gorillaz. Albarn wrote the score while Hewlett designed the set and costumes. Adapted and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, whose credits range from classical Chinese opera to the Meryl Streep movie Dark Matter, the show also featured 45 Chinese circus acrobats, Shaolin monks and Chinese vocalists. The production was designed and created by Théâtre du Châtelet in co-operation with the Manchester International Festival and the Berlin State Opera, and performed at the Palace Theatre.
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