CityLife

Feast of fun

Platt Fields... on a sunnier occasion

AFTER twenty-one years of providing uniquely enthralling and exciting outdoor performances around Manchester, often in their Streets Ahead guise, it might have been nice if the last Manchester International Arts event in Manchester had at least been blessed with good weather!

Instead this terrific arts extravaganza suffered from so much unseasonal rain and cold that some of the events, including Ballet Boyz II, Pret A Porter and Punchdrunk, even ended up, ironically, being transferred indoors on the Saturday evening.

But it speaks volumes about the enormous affection and enthusiasm for Streets Ahead/MIA that people were still willing (and hardy enough!) to turn up in substantial numbers to enjoy picnicking, street theatre, dance, circus and music around the boating lake in Platt Fields Park.

Where else, after all, might you be able to enjoy a troupe of veteran Egyptian musicians just before literally bumping into a group of anarchic grannies larking about on souped up giant shopping trolleys? Or catch a French acro-balancing act caught in a moment of playful violence and passionate insanity: interact with a litte leaf goblin (or boggart); enjoy the sinuous and sexy North Aftican/French sounds of Lo’Jo; and witness an aerialist emerging from a giant orchid?

Over the years, these events have been a fabulous and, you would have thought, irreplaceable part of the artistic landscape in Manchester. Let’s hope that this wasn’t really the last.