New work from Blackhaine, Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids, Juliet Ellis, FAFSWAG, Andy Field and Becky Darlington, John Grant, Shilpa Gupta, Germaine Kruip, Juan Mata, Ntombizodwa Nyoni, The Royal Ballet, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rosabel Tan, Santiago Yahuarcani feature in this year’s Manchester International Festival announced earlier today
This year the Festival spreads its wings with events in Rochdale and Wigan alongside a plethora of guest artists from Manchester and the North West
On the opening weekend hundreds of participants will join puppeteers in THE HERDS to parade animals made in Manchester through the city streets and beyond to open the festival.
160 young people will participate in a schools showcase taking over Festival Square and 489 school children from across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester will work alongside artists to create The Inheritance.
8000 tickets will be available for £10 or less alongside free events across the Festival
This year will be the first edition of the Manchester International Festival hosted within the fully operational Aviva Studios, home of Factory International. The festival will span Aviva Studios, partner venues such as HOME and the Royal Exchange, as well as unique found spaces on the city streets.
There will also be three specific weekends of community activations curated and hosted by MIF’s Neighbourhood Organisers, who will host afternoon showcases featuring cabaret, performance and comedy.
The buzzing heart of MIF, Festival Square, returns with a free programme of live music and performances outside Aviva Studios, and this year also flowing indoors to the Social. There will also be a talks programme, to be announced in due course.
Digitally, Factory Settings launches a new project by award-winning design studio Superflux for MIF25.
Marking the beginning of a long-term partnership, which will explore the ecological future of Aviva Studios’ post-industrial site, the collaboration will launch with an augmented reality experience on the Factory Settings free AR app.
This year’s festival will also see six Factory Fellows working directly alongside creatives and production teams; 15 Factory Sounds artists, as well as 400 incredible Festival volunteers
John McGrath, Chief Executive and Artistic Director at Factory International says:
“It has been such a delight to welcome Low Kee Hong to Manchester and to see his ideas for the future of MIF develop. With a global outlook and deep local engagement, the 2025 edition of Manchester International Festival, curated by Kee Hong, promises to be an exciting new step in the story of this unique festival of new work from the world’s great artists. Our wonderful new year-round home, Aviva Studios, will form a joyful centre to the festival, while we also partner with artists and organisations across Greater Manchester to ensure a festival for everyone.”
