To accompany Jeremy Deller’s Procession, held on MIF’s first weekend, Cornerhouse will be staging a major exhibition, documenting both the Procession itself and the ideas that informed its creation. A specially commissioned film of Procession will play as part of the show, alongside a programme of other events.

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.

20 advocates present their solutions to the problem of climate change to a panel of experts and a live audience at Manchester Town Hall. The results form the basis of The Manchester Report to be published at the end of the Festival.

Celebrate the launch weekend of MIF by lining the Deansgate mile to witness a free and uniquely Mancunian procession, created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.

Live relay of the Elbow and The Hallé concert on Thu 9 July, to a big screen in Castlefield Arena.
Free and unticketed.

One of the great successes of the first MIF, The Great Indoors is back with a brand new and awfully big adventure that lasts an entire weekend. It’s suitable for children aged 3-11, but there’s also plenty of stuff that’ll appeal to grown-ups. What’s more, it’s all entirely free. Event guide now available to download, see more info…

To close the 2009 Festival, MIF will be offering 2,000 people the chance to taste the city as they’ve never tasted it before. Internationally renowned culinary experts and chefs from Manchester’s diverse range of communities will create five special dishes…