Imagine walking into a disused building. You find yourself inside a film. It is a ghost story where unexpected forces, veiled by the American Dream, come out from the dark to haunt you…

Following the iconoclastic Il Tempo del Postino in 2007, MIF returns to the crossroads of visual art and performance, inviting world-renowned artist Marina Abramović to curate an epic group show featuring some of the most innovative live artists working today. Quite unlike anything staged before in the UK, this will be a provocative and visceral experience.

Walking or driving the same streets every day, many of us take our surroundings for granted. Artist Gustav Metzger will be challenging this sense of security with Flailing Trees, an arresting and poignant new piece of public art that will stand in the Manchester Peace Garden for the duration of the Festival.

In Albert Square, the Festival Pavilion is the heart of this year’s Festival and the perfect place to eat, drink and relax, with music, fresh food, free internet access and Festival information and box office.

The Beating Wing Orchestra (BWO) returns to the Festival for a unique collaboration with Malian superstars Amadou & Mariam.

Manchester’s favourite sons return to their cherished home town to collaborate with another of the city’s artistic powerhouses in the shape of The Hallé, Manchester’s own multi-award-winning symphony orchestra and the city’s original cultural icon.

Transforming the iconic Royal Exchange into a working bingo hall for the occasion, Everybody Loves a Winner tracks a group of twenty players through their night out. It’s all here: the cheap jokes, the unspoken thoughts, the empty handbags and the sheer disbelief…

 

Click here to visit the gallery of photographs of last year’s events.