Manchester International Festival (MIF) has today unveiled its “vibrant programme” of events as it makes its highly-anticipated return this summer.
A 42-metre sculpture of Big Ben made out of political books in Piccadilly Gardens, a new film featuring Cillian Murphy, and a theatrical performance of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay about grief are among the standout works set to feature.
Returning to Manchester city centre from 1st-18th July as one of the first large-scale events to be held following the proposed lift of all COVID-19 restrictions on 21st June, as part of the government’s “irreversible” roadmap for lifting England’s current national lockdown, the jam-packed MIF21 lineup will showcase original new work from across the spectrum of visual and performing arts and music by artists from over 20 countries.
Performances are set to take place safely at both indoor and outdoor locations across Greater Manchester, including the first ever work on the construction site of The Factory – the landmark cultural space that will be MIF’s future home.
A “rich online offer” will also provide a window into the festival wherever audiences are, including livestreams and work created especially for the digital real.
After a year apart and indoors, the #MIF21 line-up is here! From 1-18th July, we’re welcoming you back to the heart of the city – to performance, visual art, music, talks, residencies and more. Manchester, we’ve missed you. Find the full programme: https://t.co/0fLstmIhfKpic.twitter.com/ufKZtAY9u7
— Manchester International Festival (@MIFestival) April 28, 2021
With almost all of the work set to be showcased at the festival created in the past year, MIF21 provides a “unique snapshot of these unprecedented time”, with artists having reflected on ideas such as love and human connections, the way we play, division and togetherness, equality and social change, and the relationship between the urban and the rural.
Festival Square will also return this summer, to a new location at Cathedral Gardens.
And, for the first time ever, the curation of the festival’s talks and discussions programme has been handed over to the people of Greater Manchester, which will build on MIF’s work involving the community as artistic collaborators and participants in work shaped by them.
So, what are some of the works festival-goers can expect this year?
Among the big names debuting new work at MIF21 will be actor Cillian Murphy, singer-songwriter Patti Smith, Catatonia frontwoman Cerys Matthews, world-renowned choreographer Boris Charmatz, author Lemn Sissay, and musician Arlo Parks.
MIF / Big Ben Lying Down with Political Books
Bevan Ross – MIF / The Walk | Kira Barlach
Sea Change – a new outdoor dance work by French choreographer Boris Charmatz – will fill Deansgate with a chain of professional and non-professional dancers, including more than 150 local residents each performing and repeating a dance movement on the spot in “a joyous celebration of togetherness” in a post-COVID world.
The Argentinian artist Marta Minujín’s ‘Big Ben Lying Down with Political Books’ – which has been described as a “reflective but joyous” work after a year in which relations between the Greater Manchester region and Westminster became increasingly strained – will be situated in Piccadilly Gardens.
The actor Cillian Murphy and the author Max Porter are reunited for the film ‘All of This Unreal Time’, which is directed by Aoife McArdle, with music provided by The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner alongside Jon Hopkins.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s New Yorker essay ‘Notes on Grief‘ will be reimagined for the stage by director Rae McKen, while Akram Khan and animator and director Naaman Azhari are collaborating on a film, and Arlo Parks and Patti Smith also performing.
Other work includes Forensic Architecture’s installation at the Whitworth about the notorious Cancer Alley in Louisiana, photographer Cephas Williams will have his portraits of black British subjects shown in the Arndale shopping centre, and Laure Prouvost’s immersive installation entitled the long waited, weighted gathering, will reopen the Manchester Jewish Museum.
MIF / Louis Reynolds
“MIF has always been a festival like no other,” said John McGrath, Artistic Director & Chief Executive at Manchester International Festival.
“[This is] a truly international programme of work made in the heat of the past year and a vibrant response to our times. Created with safety and wellbeing at the heart of everything, it is flexible to ever-changing circumstances, and boldly explores both real and digital space.
“We hope MIF21 will provide a time and place to reflect on our world now.
“To celebrate the differing ways we can be together, and to emphasise, despite all that has happened, the importance of our creative connections – locally and globally”.
Sir Richard Leese – Leader of Manchester City Council – added: “After the year we’ve all had that has been such a massive challenge for our cultural sector, Manchester needs MIF this year more than ever.
“Manchester has always been a city that values and champions culture and is rightly recognised across the globe for its strengths and innovation in this [so] as we now begin to move out of the pandemic, we’re very clear that the cultural sector has an enduring and important part to play in our recovery.
“Thanks to the determination and creativity of the MIF team and all the artists and others who are part of this year’s festival, I have no doubt that MIF21 will put Manchester back in the spotlight once more”.
MIF – Poet Slash Artists | Homecoming Live
As one of the first major public events in the city, MIF21 will play a key role in the safe reopening of the city’s economy and provide employment for hundreds of freelancers and artists.
Much of the programme will be free to attend.
Tickets will be on sale on from 20th May 2021, and you can grab yours here.
Featured Image – MIF / Louis Reynolds
What's On
Aitch is playing a huge hometown set at The Warehouse Project
Danny Jones
Aitch has booked another massive hometown slot as the Moston-born rapper will be playing none other than the home of clubbing here in Manchester: The Warehouse Project.
Joining the WHP25 programme, which is already stacked right up until New Year’s Eve, the 25-year-old is the latest rapper to take on the famous club venue, following the likes of Little Simz and Loyle Carner, who played the event series back in October.
Aitch‘s new album, 4 – which denotes the number of studio LPs he’s made to date and acts as a nod to the M4 postcode – was released on June 20 and has already proved popular with fans.
Having just played Parklife as well as a secret set at Glastonbury this year, he’s already performed most of his biggest slots for the year, but the ever-rising local rapper thought he’d given Manchester another big gig and one more chance to see him live in 2025.
As an increasingly popular main event act across the UK, a headline show at Warehouse Project is nothing short of a massive deal for any artist, let alone a Manc.
The date itself will see him see him performing songs from the new record, which is his second to hit the top 10, as well as a selection of multiple platinum-selling hits.
Sharing details of early access tickets on Instagram stories shortly after the announcement, the UK hip-hop and grime star reminded fans: “This is the only chance to see me shut this sh*t down this year!!!”
It’s actually his only major domestic show in full stop, so if you’re a die-hard fan of Harrison Armstrong and his music, you really don’t want to miss this one.
He’s not the only big name coming to Mayfield this season either.
WHP25 /// FISHER – TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Don’t miss out on what’s set to be an unmissable night – packed with infectious energy from beginning to end – as he takes over Depot Mayfield alongside a lineup coming very soon.
Featured Images — Jahnay Tennai (supplied)/Aitch (via TikTok)
What's On
‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
Emily Sergeant -
28th April 2021 
