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. New Order: Cheat Sheet

    Everything you need to know about the legendary electro-rockers

    New OrderMIF

    New Order perform 5 gigs as part of this year's festival

    Tonight New Order take to the stage for their 2nd MIF gig, and thanks to their immense following, they’ve totally sold out. So, if you are part of the uninitiated or were just unable to get a ticket, what do you need to know?

    Name: New Order

    Special Skill: Pop-punk/electronic dance rock fusion

    Born: They formed in 1980 in Manchester, and consist of the remaining members of Joy Division after the tragic suicide of Ian Curtis (though the line-up has changed a lot over time)

    What should I know?

    Over 30 years old and still pushing at the boundaries of electronic rock, New Order are undisputed musical pioneers.

    From their mega hits like Blue Monday and True Faith, to perfect dance album Lowlife and Brit-Rock surprise Get Ready, they are constantly innovating with a tough-as-nails spirit. As Miranda Sawyer puts it in her Guardian article:

    “Revolutionary music made by anti-musicians who use machines to produce emotion, who mix electronic sounds with guitars, who represent the racket and the attitude of the city that binds them together.”

    What to say at a dinner party:

    “Well yes, you know, by stepping away from the abrasive minimalism of Joy Division, New Order embraced technology to create an amazingly electronic repertoire, that still manages to feel organic.”

    I know things now! What should I do next?

    Even if they're not planning to play it tonight, you should listen to True Faith again, it’s great. Ideally accompanied by the mind-bending video:

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  2. That wraps up our morning session - join us again at 2:45pm!

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Join us again at 2:45pm where speakers include What If Women Ruled The World? creator Yael Bartana and Future Everything.

    Let's talk about heroes.

  3. Interested in programming meets poetry?

    Learn more from Bad Language and Future Everything

    Enjoying the combined forces of Bad Language and Future Everything bringing us debate, readings and poetry?

    You can also learn more about their upcoming data poetry workshop, and get involved.

  4. I Tell Her by Deanna Rodger

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Another chance to watch her brilliant poem in action

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  5. Watch poem 'Being British' by Deanna Rodger

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    She’s one of our brilliant panellists on today’s Interdependence: Let’s Talk About Power - and you can watch her perform her amazing anti-BNP statement piece right here:

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  6. "The internet is not a black quagmire of unreality - it is the golden opportunity"

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    There's a job to be done inside the net by young people - the internet is not a black quagmire of unreality - it is the golden opportunity, that in its future lies a better network, where our passions, ideas are married to technology. The digital arena will be the greatest opportunity since the invention of the book, to create a global communication to cross all barriers.

    Andrew O'Hagan, Writer

  7. "Social media has become a place for the performing of self"

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Andrew O'Hagan talks about the self-selection and careful control of existence on social media

    These teenagers, they become the writer, star, director, producer, heads of hair and makeup, for a film entitled 'My Life.'

    Andrew O'Hagan, Writer

  8. Meet our speakers: Andrew O'Hagan

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Man Booker prize nominee (several times over) Andrew O’Hagan is one of the most exciting writers in contemporary Britain.

    His novels include The Missing, Our Fathers and Illuminations, and writes for New Yorker, The Guardian, London Review Of Books and Granta.

    In some sense, great poets are the landscape they magic into being. The place isn’t quite there – not imaginatively – without them. Wordsworth carries the Lakes, Emily Brontë carries Yorkshire, Heaney is Ireland and Pope is the difficult London of his day.

    Andrew O'Hagan, Writer

  9. Don't forget our afternoon session: We Need To Talk About Heroes

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk

    Many more of our brilliant festival artists are joining us this afternoon at 2pm - so make sure to stay tuned!

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  11. Meet our speakers: Jason Hickel

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Anthropologist and author Jason Hickel is known for his political insight - exploring and commenting on global development and political economy.

    He writes regularly for The Guardian, and we recommend kicking off with his article on the fight for global equality.

    If capitalism is going to be globalised, it makes sense that we should globalise the rules and standards that protect people from it as well.

    Jason Hickel, Writer

  12. "Ask for audacious things" - Lubaina Himid

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    On being asked, having being nominated for the Turner prize, does more fame equal more power?

    You say I'm more famous, but in reality that doesn't change anything. There are some men in suits who in the last 3 weeks have said 'we'd like to do something for you, what would you like' and I have asked for some audacious things, but... we'll see.

    Lubaina Himid, Artist

  13. House Gospel Choir hits Albert Square tonight: 7:30pm

    Festival Square

    Marrying the spirituality of religious ceremonies with the euphoria of the dance-floor, House Gospel Choir is an outstanding combination of singers and musicians bringing pure joy to their sets - learn more right here.

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  14. Lubaina Himid speaking in front of the set she designed

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

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  15. Thanks to our speakers Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and David Olusoga

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    And don't forget, you can see Sharmeen's beautiful new exhibition Home1947 at The Lowry in Salford for the duration of the festival.

    Home1947MIF

  16. Next up! Turner Prize nominee Lubaina Himid

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Lubaina Himd is a Turner-nominated artist and educator, born in Zanzibar and based in Britain.

    She was a leader of the British Black Arts Movement of the 80s, and is known for her fervent and passionate contribution to black female art.

    You can take a look at her vibrant, beautiful art on her website.

    I wasn’t really making work to confront a white audience. I was making work so that other black people could come to exhibitions and be in a room with a load of black women and think, ‘Oh, this is just like me on a Saturday night or me at a wedding.’ I was trying to make places and spaces where we could see ourselves, but also where we could be seen.

    Lubaina Himid, Artist

  17. How can 'ordinary' people help change the story?

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    What can we do? Ask questions. When the people you ask don't have the answers, go and find them. Leave the virtual world, rattle cages, and start being a pain in the ass until you find what you need to know.

    Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Curator, Home1947

  18. "You've just got to be a bigger pain in the ass"

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

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  19. Documentary and activism - is there a difference?

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    All documentary makers are activists, and any documentary makers who say otherwise are lying. If you spend 3 years making a film about something, you want people to see your point of view.

    Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Curator, Home1947

  20. Trailer: The Girl In The River

    Interdependence: We Need To Talk About Power

    Take a look at the trailer for Sharmeen's Academy Award winning film The Girl In The River:

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