CityLife

MIF: Manchester International Festival announces full stellar line-up

Guy Garvey and Rufus Wainwright at the launch 1 / 5 images

IF the glamour and scale of this year's Manchester International Festival launch party are an indication of what's to come, then 2009 will be the year the whole city sits up and takes notice. 

Around 300 people, including media sponsors CityLife.co.uk and the MEN, gathered at Manchester Art Gallery to be addressed by a stellar panel that included Elbow's Guy Garvey, Rufus Wainwright, Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, playwright and theatre director Neil Bartlett and legendary German-born political artist Gustav Metzger.

Festival director Alex Poots unveiled a calendar that made the audience gasp with excitement, and included a few notable returns of faces from festivals past. 

Pavilion

This year’s festival runs from Thursday July 2 until Sunday July 19 right across the city's key venues and a new hub in the city centre - a huge Pavilion Theatre in Albert Square, which the organisers expect to become a meeting place to eat, drink, socialise and find out information throughout the 18-day event.

The biennial festival will again include a wide-ranging programme of world firsts, including a significant number of free and family-friendly events.

Key events look likely to be Jeremy Deller’s uniquely Mancunian Procession along Deansgate; the Manchester Report, addressing climate change; and the MIF Creative event, where Malian stars Amadou and Mariam work with local young people.

Lou and Laurie

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson make their first ever appearance together in their co-penned show The Yellow Pony and Other Songs and Stories; electro-pioneers Kraftwerk perform at the Velodrome; while hearts will doubtless soar at the triumphant return of Elbow, working with “the original Manchester band” The Halle Orchestra.

Manchester Art Gallery is giving over one gallery to Zaha Hadid Architects, who have designed a unique chamber music hall in response to the music of JS Bach, while at the other extreme a derelict building on the edge of Spinningfields is being turned into a house haunted by the ghosts of America's rise to power in It Felt Like A Kiss.

And who can help smiling at the very idea of Bingo, the people’s game, at the Royal Exchange in Everybody Loves A Winner?

Innovation

Some of those names – notably Gorillaz and Blur frontman Damon Albarn, Lou Reed and dancer Carlos Acosta -  are returning but this year’s MIF looks to have taken on board the criticism levelled by some that the last event concentrated a little too much on the “International” and not enough on the “Manchester”.

“Manchester has long thrived on invention, innovation and radical thought, and MIF aspires to be part of that tradition,” observes Festival Director Alex Poots.

“We are very pleased to be able to bring together such a range of artists for the 09 event. We’ve tried to give our artists room to breathe, encouraging them to explore new ways of working within their fields and beyond.”

Tour internationally

The festival first ran in 2007, when it featured dozens of diverse world premieres.

They incuded: Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Monkey: Journey To The West; a new play starring Johnny Vegas; dance from the internationally-acclaimed Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta; food inventions by Heston Blumenthal; and music from Lou Reed, Kanye West, Happy Mondays, PJ Harvey and Gossip, as well as Il Tempo del Postino, a group show by 15 of the world’s leading contemporary artists.

Many of the shows went on to tour nationally and internationally.

Line up

The line-up announced at Manchester Art Gallery is:

Bingo: Everybody Loves A Winner @ Royal Exchange Theatre, July 1-18

Kraftwerk and Steve Reich @ Manchester Velodrome, July 2

It Felt Like A Kiss @ Hardman Square,Spinningfields, July 2-19

Antony & The Johnsons @ Manchester Opera House, July 3-4

Same Teens @ Pavilion Theatre, July 3-4

Dave Haslam’s True Faith @ Pavilion Theatre, July 6, 9,11, 13, 14, 18

Gustav Metzger: Flailing Trees @ Manchester Peace Garden, July 3-19

Marina Abramovic @ Whitworth Art Gallery, July 3-19

J S Bach/Zaha Hadid Architects @ ManchesterArt Gallery, July 3-5, 10,12, 15-18

Jeremy Deller: Procession @ Deansgate, July 5

Amadou and Mariam with The Beating Wing Orchestra @ Pavilion Theatre, July  7-8

Elbow and the Halle @ Bridgewater Hall, July 8-9

Carlos Acosta @ The Lowry, July 9-11

Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna @ Palace Theatre, July 10-19

The Difference Engine @ Manchester Town Hall, July 11-12

The Great Indoors @Manchester Town Hall July 11-12

Young at Heart Chorus @ RNCM Bruntwood Theatre, July 11-18

The Durutti Column @ Pavilion Theatre, July 15-17

De La Soul @ The Ritz, July 16-17

Laurie Anderson & Lou Reed @ Palace Theatre, July 18

Festival Feast @ Festival Pavilion, Albert Square, July 19.

YOU can find out more via the links to the right.