We can't really begin to comprehend just how much work has gone into making the game-changing Utopolis (though Dan gave it a Damn Good Try), external.

An exploration of utopia, a city-sprawling adventure, an entirely interactive audio experience, you really do have to try it to believe it.

First of all, take a look at the trailer, so you know what you're dealing with:

Intrigued? So were all the intrepid souls who stepped out to their allocated meeting spot last night for the very first show. Now the last thing we want to do is spoil the surprises, so here's just a little glimpse of what went on...

(We know that last one is just Dan again, but DAMMIT what are you here for if not sweet Dan Hett content?)

We can promise you that there is nothing else on the programme quite like this. Get down to Utopolis, external, begin your adventure, and lose yourself in a city you thought you knew.

Did you know our commission Tao Of Glass, external, forged by director Phelim McDermott and world renown composer Philip Glass, originally came to McDermott in a dream?

BBC Radio 3's Sara Mohr Pietsch goes into the rehearsal room to listen to some brand new music, understand the creative process and where exactly puppets get involved...

A world premiere, this new show marries meditations on life and death with ten brand new pieces of music from Philip Glass, with a hypnotising ensemble of musicians and puppeteers. It opens tonight, and you can find out more right here., external

Last night saw the UK premiere of Ivo Van Hove's controversial stage adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, a gargantuan four-hour performance running at The Lowry until Friday.

Here's the official trailer to give you an idea:

Gaby Jenks, our very own Digital Director, was in attendance at the opening show last night:

The divisive but ever-popular book has certainly split audiences over the years, but Ivo Van Hove's new reading of the source material is definitely one to try out for yourself.

You can find more info on the show here, which runs until tomorrow evening., external

We decided that the best way to get a handle on what a show is really like, is to jump out in front of them with a camera while they're literally coming out of the performance. If you'd like to know what people thought of Tree, we did just that:

Tree runs until the 13th July, be quick!, external

Good morning, campers!

Welcome to this, the second week of the Manchester International Festival. It's been an absolute whirlwind of activity so far, and so today it's a nice quiet one with nothing much happening.

As if!

Image source, MIF

After a flurry of openings yesterday, the big hitter premiering in Manchester today is none other than Tao of Glass, external, by Philip Glass and performer-director Phelim McDermott.

Tao Of Glass marries ten meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom with ten brand new pieces of music from Glass, presented by McDermott with an ensemble of musicians and puppeteers.

We'll be focusing on some of the elements of this incredible show over the next few days, full info on it all is right here, external.

Image source, MIF

Meanwhile we have continuing runs from Utopolis, external, the Nico Project, external, Maggie The Cat, external and two showings of Tuesday, external too. We'll be bringing you audience reactions and reviews from these super shows too.

Tania Bruguera's amazing School of Integration rolls on at the Manchester Art Gallery, we had a lot of fun there yesterday. Full listings here, external, and remember - all classes are free!

Finally, we have a lovely schedule over on Festival Square today, external: Marc Constantine, Kind Stranger, Electronic Empires, the superb House Gospel Choir and absolutely do not miss Hattie Pearson rounding off the day with a bang at 22:00 BST.

Go forth, festival!

And thus we roll to the end of the seventh day of the almighty technicolour maelstrom of activity that is the Manchester International Festival.

It's been quite the day for festival launches, some of which we've covered and some of which we'll be shining some light on over the coming days. Invisible Cities, external, The Nico Project, external, The Fountainhead, external and Tuesday, external all kicked off their runs today, and as I type this the Utopolis crew are at full battle stations during the first full public run of their monstrously ambitious work (which knocked my socks clean off when I snuck onto the dress rehearsal, oh my).

Image source, MIF

Your intrepid live team also attended their first School of Integration class, life drawing with the wonderful Leo Mohammed, which we absolutely adored and covered in more detail earlier today.

Most importantly, Dan reached the halfway mark, external on his quest to consume quite literally one of everything available to eat on Festival Square. An important milestone.

We'll be back bright and early tomorrow to kick off week two of the festival, we'll be bringing you audience impressions of the wonderful work that premiered today, more Creative Lab goodness, some behind the scenes peeks, a packed-out Festival Square programme, and much more.

Until then, my friends: adieu.

This afternoon both members of the MIF Live content-wrangling team took some time out to drop into the amazing School Of Integration, external, on a life drawing class run by the amazing Leonardo Mohammed, external. Firstly we wanted to see who was the king of the artists (spoiler: neither of us, but we had fun), but most importantly to speak to Leonardo about his work, his story, and his outlook.

Here's how our experience went, along with some insights from Leonardo as he led the class. This tweet is the first of a nice long twitter thread, you can see the whole story on Twitter, external!

We caught up with Leo after the class, and asked a few questions about his work (excuse the quiet questions, we had to work quickly in a noisy gallery!)

Find out more about the School of Integration here, external, including a full schedule of every class - free to attend for the entire festival.

If you're alive in 2019, you're worrying about the state of things. But how do we puncture our mental paralysis, and use the tools we have to create a better world?

As part of our Interdependence , externalseries, rave legend Dave Haslam, author Agata Pyzik and Guardian journalist John Harris talk about living in a state of crisis, and look back to Manchester's 1980's utopia Hacienda heyday.

They explore how we built inclusive communities in the past almost by accident, and how we need to go about building them right now, very much on purpose.

Learn more about our Interdependence talks - running each Saturday of the Manchester International Festival. Next up is Future Myths, external - tackling how we shape the stories that guide us in the information age.

Another day, another excellent #MIF19 Creative Lab project, this time from Simon Abbott. Simon has been diving into new technology, specifically the excellent Procreate, which allows recording and playback of live drawings in digital form. Armed with this exciting new tool, here's what Simon's been up to:

Image source, MIF

In Simon's words:

I was keen to make some work on the theme of Utopia and a recent government review prompted me to focus on utopian learning spaces. What might our learning spaces in Manchester be like if we had the opportunity to start afresh and build them together as a community? The conversations that took place during this project and the artwork that followed explore whether people value our higher education institutions and discuss changes that are happening as a result of digital technology, widening participation, and new approaches to learning. I captured conversations on the topic as short time-lapse animations, created some large digital images in response to the research and finished up with a workshop with some of the artists at Venture Arts, designing utopian buildings of our own.

These really need to be watched in full, they're absolutely brilliant in motion thanks to that magic app and Simon's super technique.

The works are all hosted on Instagram, external and Tumblr, external and on a handy Youtube playlist, external too, pick your poison and take a look. You can also follow the man himself on Instagram, external too.

More exciting Creative Lab projects to follow!

In some ways it's not surprising that visionary director David Lynch chose Manchester for the first ever UK art show.

As a man who has always felt a tie to the industrial, he actually made a trip to the North West in the 90s on what he described to The Guardian , externalas "a search for factories". Though by the time he arrived, the factories were being torn down, making way for fields: "I guess it’s good for the environment" he said, "but it’s bad for photography, I’ll tell you that."

Image source, MIF

He doesn't like to give interviews, ("I don't like going out. I like to stay at home"), preferring to leave interpretation of his work - be that his seminal films, his iconic TV series Twin Peaks or his visual art - to the audience.

Instead, all we can do is catch glimpses of who he might be through the things he loves - currently curating a film season at HOME, external it's fascinating to take a look at his choices: The Wizard Of Oz, Sunset Boulevard, A Place In The Sun - films that evoke other worlds that run parallel to our own, dark glamour, beautiful, dreamy visuals.

Image source, MIF

For those who want to get a closer look into the psyche of the man behind such beloved and bizarre classics as Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man and Eraserhead (this particular live team author remains gloriously traumatised by The Lady In The Radiator), the only real option is visiting his fascinating exhibition My Head Is Disconnected, a collection of his paintings, drawings and sculptures that span his 50 year career.

Divided into four sections: City On Fire, Nothing Here, Industrial Empire (shout-out to Manchester there) and Bedtime Stories, it's an exhibition filled with glimpses of twisted stories, dramatic landscapes and bleak humour (anyone for a repeated image of a dead fly with a multitude of different names?)

Image source, MIF

"You never know when ideas are going to hit you," says Lynch, in a rare recent interview with The Big Issue, external, "You can get ideas just from sitting in a room daydreaming, just feeling the air. I think people are like radios. They pick up signals. But sometimes you go to a new place and that will give you ideas. Sometimes you go to a new place - no ideas. You never know what’s going to trigger the ideas you fall in love with."

Learn more about David Lynch at HOME here., external

Ivo Van Hove's ongoing production Re:Creating Europe , externalis showing at The Lowry, external this Friday, and although I've already seen the show during a recent performance in Paris, in sense, I haven't seen it either. Confused? OK, allow me to explain. Firstly:

The show is a many-layered commentary and rumination on European identity and politics, with several diverse actors from many European countries pulling together monologues, discussions, arguments, readings, poetry and assorted fragments of spoken word. What's interesting is that the actors on stage are reading from printed scripts the whole time, having been put together for rehearsals quite literally just on the day of the performance.

Image source, MIF

Despite this, when I saw it the show felt incredibly slick and polished - the actors cut in and out of each other perfectly, overlaid with well-timed audio video, weaving in and out of the stage. The show is performed in multiple languages, and to facilitate this there's a clever two-line subtitle system above the stage using bright LED screens, lending the feel of watching a subtitled piece of film - short blocks of subtitles quickly translate the words without detracting from the physical performances.

Image source, MIF

The most interesting aspect of the piece is the way in which it is written, and re-written, depending on the place and time in which it is performed. Where typical large-scale theatre pieces are rigorously rehearsed and kept the same as they move around, Re:Creating Europe is reconfigured each time, in order to the reflect the current time and space of the reality of Europe. For example, It was first performed a few years ago during the beginning stages of Brexit, and as such I'm sure felt like an almost entirely different work in comparison to the piece that so directly addresses the right-now of Europe from so many perspectives.

Image source, MIF

Finally, and for me absolutely critically, the piece presents viewpoints that not everyone in the audience can or will agree with. During my viewing of the piece in Paris, for example, I encountered monologues and speeches from political figures that are at completely at odds with my personal politics - but this felt in a way quite vital to the success of the work in presenting not a singular belief, but a window into the wide array of perspectives that make up the conversation around what it means to be European - or not.

Find out for yourself this Friday at the Lowry. , external

Not to mention Juliet Stevenson, Adjoa Andoh, Lemn Sissay and Michael Morpurgo. What a line-up.

Europe, eh? Who'd have thought the word could be so controversial in 2019. With the current political climate in mind, our show Re:Creating Europe, external explores the continent through the words that have shaped, traced and defined its history.

Directed by Ivo van Hove (who is also directing The Fountainhead over at The Lowry, external), it's a blending of literature, theatre and politics, weaving together the words of Shakespeare, Churchill, Obama and many more great thinkers beside.

What is Europe to us? And what do we want it to be?

Find out more about Re:Creating Europe here., external

Is it too late to save the world? Climate activist Mary Robinson and climate lawyer Tessa Khan talk about how we can battle not just to save our world, but to build a better one.

This inspiring conversation - which also includes championing of brilliant women helping to fight climate change - is part of our Interdependence, external series. Plug in and get feeling less hopeless:

Interested in more clever chatting? Take a look at the upcoming Interdependence talks , externalthis Saturday, around the theme of Future Myths.

How would you describe the world to someone who has never seen it?

Invisible Cities, external tracks the story of intrepid explorer Marco Polo, sent by mighty king Kublai Khan to document every part of his kingdom. He had to relay what he saw back to the great leader, without the luxury of a shared language. Sound like an easy thing to put on-stage? Nope, didn't think so.

Luckily, Leo Warner, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lolita Chakrabarti, 59 Productions and Rambert have done it, so we don't have to.

Mixing dance, theatre, architecture, projection mapping and visual art, they've created an entire world in a custom built space. Take a look:

Image source, MIF

Image source, MIF

Image source, MIF

Image source, MIF

Image source, MIF

Invisible Cities runs from 10-14 July, find out more here, external.

Image source, MIF

It's another packed day to look forward to in Festival Square - with a lot of fantastic emerging Manchester artists to celebrate. Take a look at the full schedule below - every event is totally free.

12.30-14:30 BST - Lingua Franca World Music Agency present Henry Fun

14:45-16:30 BST - BBC Horizons presents Eve Goodman, Rosehip Teahouse & Gwilym hosted by Huw Stephens

17.30-19:00 BST - Together We Move, external

20:00-22:00 BST - BBC Introducing Manchester Takeover presents Liam Frost, ARGH KID, Phoebe Green, OneDa & The Mouse Outfit (DJ)

22:00 BST - Late - Across the Tracks with DJs Justine Alderman & Martin Glynn

It's been an entire seven days of glorious activity over here in Manchester, we're getting into our stride now and as we head into the second week, we're stepping everything up a notch.

No less than five new shows open today - where do we get the energy?- and we can't wait to point you towards them. Plus, we've got lovely things bubbling in the background at festival square. Such as mozzeralla. But also, great gigs.

So, where do we start?

Opening today is Invisible Cities, external - a part theatre, part dance, part architectural extravaganza, exploring enormous landscapes, epic scenes that rise, blur, tumble and fall. It promises to be absolutely unforgettable, and Variety just described it as “phantasmogorical”, which is a word none of us hear enough.

The other ludicrously ambitious project opening today is Utopolis, external, a city-wide interactive audio treasure hunt where lucky adventurers take to the streets, armed only with a box of sound to give them directions. Dan did a ride-along yesterday, and was utterly knocked out by the experience. Just sounds like this one is unmissable, to be honest.

Maxine Peake is also delivering us sound and theatre fusion in the form of The Nico Project, external, an experience delving deep into the psyche of the troubled singer who made her name as the muse of Andy Warhol. Everything Maxine Peake touches turns to gorgeous gold, so we can't wait to see it.

If you're looking for more theatre, two more shows open today - The Fountainhead, external over at the Lowry Theatre promises controversy and stark truths explores the infamous work of Ayn Rand, and Tuesday, external is bringing a captivating, poetic and site-specific tale to a beautiful Grade I listed Victorian church - suitable for kids and big kids of any age.

In terms of stuff you can do for free, you can check out the classes of the School Of Integration, external - both members of the live team will be heading over today to Do Battle - who can triumph with the greatest life drawing? (spoiler alert, they will both be magnificent).

And of course, Festival Square, external will be be buzzing all day, with a BBC Introducing Manchester Takeover - they'll be presenting Liam Frost, ARGH KID, Phoebe Green, OneDa and The Mouse Outfit.

Day seven! Let's GO!

Another day dusted, another Festival Square pizza consumed, another cheerful rainfall blessing us with its wet song. Oh Manchester, as if we'd have you any other way.

Tomorrow sees a whole new host of shows opening, so check back in for the morning briefing, where we'll be talking about Invisible Cities, Utopolis, The Nico Project, the BBC Introducing takeover and more.

Plus, both intrepid live team members will be heading over to the School Of Integration, external to complete their very first class - life drawing, of course. We're pretty sure we're the artists, not the models, but hey, you can't have everything.

For now, the unbelievably entertaining, ludicrously energetic Riot Jazz are just about to take to the Festival Square, external stage, and we're streaming the first hour live on our YouTube channel, you lucky, jazzy things, external. Just to be warned, this is a live performance, so may contain some strong language and adult themes.

We'll see you bright and early for day seven - until then, to Festival Square, and the brilliance of the jazziest riot in town.

We're pleased to announce the first episode of the brand new MIF Originals podcast, external - a weekly show highlighting the hidden stories and deeper context behind some of MIF's amazing artists and commissions.

First up, we have Adam Thirwell, external getting deep on translation:

As long as he's been a novelist, Adam Thirlwell has been thinking about translation. In Episode 1 of MIF Originals, a new podcast series from Manchester International Festival, Adam looks for answers to some of the questions that have troubled him. Is it possible for literature to be truly international? Who and where is your best reader? How much is endangered and risked when language is translated? What is the original, and what is the copy? And how could radio be made multilingual?

Guidance warning: Contains adult themes

MIF Originals is available to listen to right now on the widget above, or subscribe to the series through all good podcast sites, including Apple Podcasts, external, Spotify, external, RadioPublic, external and more - just search for 'MIF' in your favourite platform. It's also available on our very lovely website, external. Tune in.

Image source, MIF

Not everyone is as lucky as us, being a sweet Mancunian stone's throw away from Albert Square - so if you've missed out on the festival action so far, we're happy to bring it directly to you.

With heavy grooves and tribal drum circles all with a distinctly urban twist of folk rock, enjoy local legends Bethlehem Casuals, external set live on the MIF YouTube channel, external.

Guidance warning: Some strong language and adult themes

Coming up later tonight is the phenomenal Riot Jazz - you'll need to appear in person for that, so hopefully we'll see you there!

See the full schedule for Festival Square here. , external

Did you even read the above? INSIDE THE MIND OF GOD. If that's not a great pitch for a show, we don't know what is.

So, Studio Creole, external is a collective of seven authors from seven different countries, all of whom have come to The Manchester International Festival to read their stories in their native language. The stories will be live translated, and live performed in English so the audience will be listening to both the original and the translation simultaneously. Actual magic.

It's a simple but fascinating thing to explore - a meshing of literature, audio and live performance, that asks what translation can give us and what it takes away. Find out more here, external, and become a god.