Summary

  • Thank you for joining us this last 18 days and for making the festival a success. Scroll back to remember some of the higlights of MIF 2017 and see you in 2019!

  • Manchester International Festival ran from 29 June and 16 July 2017

  • Talk to us @mifestival on twitter & mcrintfestival on Facebook

Live Reporting

the Manchester International Festival team

  1. What happened to the couple who met on our opening runway?

    What Is The City But The People

    They were brave enough to arrange a blind date knowing that they'd only meet each-other on a runway viewed by thousands - but what happened next?

    RunwayMIF

    Frankie and and Bruce were two of the Manchester residents who proudly walked the runway of our opening ceremony What Is The City But The People. Bruce presented Franki with a rose, they hugged, and then walked off into the sunset. So, did romance blossom?

    “We got on really well and we’ve seen each other again for a second date. We went back to Piccadilly Gardens - but this time to a restaurant and had a good night there too.”

    Bruce

    On the night itself the crowd’s response was amazing. I was nervous meeting a bloke at the end of the catwalk, but the evening was lovely and we had a really nice night.

    Frankie

    With a third date in the works, we're calling this a romantic success. At the next festival, could we organise our first ever MIF wedding?

  2. Mary Burns: Who was the woman behind Friedrich Engels?

    #Creative50

    Eight amazing Creative50 artists have collaborated on a new project celebrating the woman who inspired Friedrich Engels, Mary Burns.

    Mary Burns: “Behind ev’ry great man, there had to be a great woman”, in response to tonight's closing show Ceremony, where we welcome a new statue of Engels to the city centre.

    To ensure that this amazing woman - long term partner of Engels and the one who introduced him to the Manchester working classes - gets the recognition she deserves, they have created a sculpture of her, along with video projections, audio, and poetry and spoken word.

    Take a look at the final video they made below - it's absolutely vital watching before our Ceremony tonight!

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    Take a look at the amazing creative team involved:

    Fabricator: Nicola Ellis - @_Nicola_Ellis_

    Textile dyer: Natalie Linney - @TalieLinseed

    Sculpture designer: Jasmine Walne @jwalnedesign

    Films/projections: Jamie Starboisky @jamiestarboisky

    Composition/cello: Chris Lyon @gymnastband

    Recording/sound design: Manoli Moriaty @manolimoriaty

    Poetry: Ella Otomewo @black_poetess

    Poetry: Kofi Gyamfi - Instagram: @kofz_jamz

  3. Talk to gran today at 2pm - where do you feel most welcome?

    #creative50

    Beka Haigh
    MIF17 Creative50

    Frolicked Puppet Theatre Company's resident octogenarian, Gran, just saw our show The Welcoming Party by Theatre Rites this week, and was so moved that she thought she would extend that welcome to all of you, out in the Twitter-verse.

    We'll let her tell you more, if she can make her way up the hill, that is...

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    She would like to know where you feel most welcome, and why, either via @Yorkshire_Gran or you can tell her in person, online, today at 2pm. Get yourself a cuppa and come and tell your story...

    Gran is created by our brilliant Creative50 Artist, Beka Haigh.

    Read the full credits here and visit Frolicked online here.

  4. Women Rule Manchester - celebrate the women of our city

    #Creative50

    Women Rule Manchester (or #WomenRuleMcr) is a brilliant 3 hour durational interview project capturing the diverse identity and opinions of Manchester's women, their relationship to the city and their hopes for the future.

    The inteviews were then condensed to this fantastic short video, giving us a fantastic snapshot of the women of Manchester:

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    Women Rule Manchester aims to inspire discussions surrounding identity, culture, womanhood, feminism and the future whilst exploring the confessional nature of internet culture, aiming to inspire intrigue and sentiment. The project is inspired by the work of theatre companies Quarantine, Forced Entertainment and performance artists such as Marina Abramovich, also taking influence from viral style videos.

    Megan Griffith, Creator, Women Rule MCR

    The piece was created by our Creative50 artist Megan Griffith and Girl Gang Manchester in response to our shows What Is The City But The People and What If Women Ruled The World?, and saw approximately 35 women from different generations and backgrounds share their unique perspectives on topics personal, local and political.

    To find out more about the project and the people behind it visit: @girlgangmcr #girlgangmcr #womenrulemcr @meganmegamegme

    Watch the full live stream here.

  5. One Sided Story - a response to One Of Two Stories, Or Both

    #Creative50

    Rizwana Hussain
    MIF17 Creative 50

    One of our specially commissioned Creative50 artists Rizwana Hussain has taken a look at ideas of misinformation, hearsay and variety of opinion in her utterly unique Twitter-bot project One Sided Story.

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    In response to 'One of Two Stories. or Both', I created Laura Taylor, a twitter bot, that represents a multiple of individuals of varying backgrounds, ages and ethnicities who live in a two mile radius from one another. This was to recreates a sense of what was happening in different people's lives in my current home of Oldham, Greater Manchester. Laura is a mixture of any five individuals from the area at any given time. What would a representation of these diverse set of individuals look like, talk about and express about their life? How misrepresentative and random could this bot get, a bit like misunderstandings and hearsay that happens when stories are retold.

    Rizwana Hussain, Creative50 Artist

    You can follow Laura: @One_Sided_Story

    Credit:

    Twitter: @rizwana_h Instagram: rizhussainWeb: Rizwana.tilda.ws

  6. Baryonic Empathy: a musical response to Dark Matter

    #creative50

    Sound artist and one of our #creative50 Jim Fortune has created a series of amazing sound pieces in response to our Dark Matter gigs

    In answer to the multitude of styles and genres. I have created 12 pieces of music combining diegetic sound, different tempos and dark matter theory.

    Jim Fortune, Creative50 artist

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    Follow Jim on twitter and Facebook to see the entire series as they’re published.

  7. Cut Some Shapes! A response to 10,000 Gestures

    #Creative50

    Emily Dobson
    MIF17 Creative50

    We love this cheerful, lovely animation by one of our Creative50 artists Emily Dobson, inspired by the movements she observed in our dance show 10,000 Gestures.

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    I was inspired by Boris' choreography with the movement of the familiar gestures and tapped into what the familiar is for me when I draw. The short animation contains hand drawn lines and scribbles centred around the sharp fast movement of what is vaguely human and performing a dance. As I produced the work it slowly became a visual representation of my own thoughts and feelings when watching the performance.

    Emily Dobson, Creative50 Artist

    https://emilydobsonblog.tumblr.com/

    https://www.emilyvictoriadobson.co.uk/

    Music: No Frills Salsa Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  8. '25 digital dancers, an infinite number of gestures'

    #Creative50

    Elisa Morais
    MIF17 Creative50

    Elias MoriasMIF

    Local artist and one of our #creative50 cohort Elisa Morais has created an amazing video, Machine de la Danse, in response to our show 10,000 Gestures.

    Machine de la Danse is a choreography for digital dancers. It was made in collaboration between Elisa Morais, her long term collaborator María Álvarez (collectively known as Sois de Traca) and a digital machine that generates random gestures, in a quest to explore themes of uniqueness and technology.

    Watch Machine de la Danse right here.

    The machine is a piece of code created in Processing that acts as a choreographer generating geometrical dancing pieces whose ephemeral gestures are captured and structured.

    Sois de Traca soisdetraca.com / twitter @SoisDeTraca

  9. Listen to Crescent - a sublime response to Fatherland

    #creative50

    Shaquille Silva
    MIF17 Creative 50

    Shaquille Rayes, singer, songwriter and one of our hugely talented #creative50 artists, has produced a beautiful song in response to our show Fatherland.

    It's special for a lot of reasons, but we'll let Shaquille explain in his own words.

    This song is a celebration and tribute to my father, who didn't have to be there, but chose to be. It was written, as part of MIF's Creative50, in response to a play called Fatherland, which I saw on the same day I was told my dad had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The song takes inspiration from the play both lyrically and musically, and addresses the spectrum of light and dark that life is.

    Shaquille Rayes, Creative50 artist

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    We're honoured to present this song, and recommend you stop what you're doing right now, and listen to it.

    Insta: @shaquillerayes

    Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user595431601

  10. It's the final day! Let's see out the festival in style

    What to do today

    It's here! 18 days later, and we're all (just about) still standing.

    Tonight we finish with our amazing public closing ceremony - created by artist Phil Collins, and bringing a local hero back to our city streets.

    In the meantime, there's still plenty on - that's right, we intend to pack our final day as full as we possibly can.

    So we've got the final shows of Party Skills For The End Of The World and The Welcoming Party, a fantastic set in Festival Square by Spring King + Let's Eat Grandma, our True Faith, ToGather and Music For A Busy City exhibitions are still open and free) and our game commission can still be played right here.

    What are you waiting for? Grab this year's festival while you still can!

    Lostmemories.net: a new game commission for #mif17 from Nina Freeman

  11. Cotton Panic! now available to watch, right here

    Watch Jane Horrocks in a world exclusive

    We're delighted to tell you that you can now watch a full performance of the brand new industrial gig-musical Cotton Panic!, created by and starring Jane Horrocks and Wrangler.

    Watch this recorded stream and see a beautiful merging of music, projection, morality, politics and - of course - Jane's gorgeous voice.

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  12. Audience reactions to Cotton Panic!

    (and Jane's reaction to those reactions, gosh it gets complicated)

    You might not be able to watch Cotton Panic! live just yet (soon we'll share where you can see it online), but we're happy to show you some reactions from those who have...

    First, a word from the queen herself...

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    Now, let's get to what the audiences say

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  13. And that's it for Interdependence!

    Thanks so much for watching the debate

    For those who missed today's live-streams about truth and change, you'll be able to catch them on our Facebook page.

    Thanks to all our speakers, and to VICE for bringing so many amazing people to our stage.

    Join us tomorrow for our closing ceremony, aptly named Ceremony, as we welcome home a local hero. We'll be streaming it live from 6pm, so we'll see you then!

  14. Joel Golby judges your Facebook photos

    VICE staff writer Joel Golby uses photos audience members have sent in of their Facebook profiles to talk about the impressions we hope to make on other people.

    Being actively attractive in your Facebook picture is rude. It's not in the spirit of things.

    Joel Golby, VICE

  15. Meet our speakers: Is Britain A Hostile State?

    Learn more about our panel...

    Hassan Akkad

    Akkad came to Europe as a refugee in 2015 after a long and demoralising journey from Syria. He recorded his travels on a GoPro camera, and the resulting documentary, Exodus, won a BAFTA earlier this year.

    Denise McDowell

    McDowell is the Director of Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, which specialises in advising, supporting and representing people who are subject to immigration control.

    Helen Brewer

    Brewer is involved in on-going activism around immigration, and was one of a group who managed to stop one of the British government’s deportation charter flights from leaving Gatwick Airport with migrants and asylum seekers from Nigeria and Ghana on board.

    Saffiyah Khan

    Khan was the subject of a photo that went viral earlier this year when she was pictured standing up to Ian Crossland (head of the English Defence League) at an EDL demonstration in March. She has since become an outspoken activist in the fight against islamophobia and racism in the UK.

  16. Enjoying hearing about Brexit Stage Left?

    Learn more about the project on the VICE website

  17. Joe Bish tries to get to the bottom of British culture

    Want to know more about him?

    Joe Bish is a Vice staff writer. For the past three years, he has been travelling across Britain to discover what life is like in places that have been forgotten by the media and the masses. Follow him on Twitter here

  18. Do we need to change how we communicate our politics?

    PMQ's is like a bunch of rich kids in the playground. It's all put together to try to alienate us, and we have to start reclaiming the debate, and putting these arguments through our own filters

    Rants N Bants

  19. Is there an issue of enthusiasm versus experience?

    Can young people set politics on a mistaken route? Or do we need fresh blood in order to get things done?

  20. James Frith on the importance of anger

    Anger is an energy. Apathy is the enemy. You can use anger, you can turn it and point it into action, into the right direction. If you're not turning up, and turning out, you're never going to get anything done

    James Frith