Whether participating in a show, volunteering or hosting their own micro-festival, thousands of Mancunians are helping make this year’s Manchester International Festival happen in countless ways.
Throughout the 18-day Festival (July 4 to 21), people from across the city are an integral part, including migrant communities playing a leading role in a Manchester Art Gallery exhibition; local choirs involved in the world premiere of a theatre show; and local dancers and poets collaborating with street-dancers from New York for an exciting new performance.
Festival Square, the hub of MIF, is shining a light on Manchester’s home-grown talent, following an open call for local performers and artists earlier in the year, whilst musicians are being showcased through BBC Introducing.
There’ll be street-dance, rock, pop and soul, hip hop, grime, neo soul and dancehall as well as surprise pop-up performances – all for free.
Festival in My House, MIF’s year-round invitation to Mancunians to host their very own micro-festivals at home, is also taking over Festival Square on Sunday, July 7.
Throughout the year, MIF has offered other opportunities for people to get creative.
The tiles that will adorn the bars in Festival Square have been made and personalised by local people at free workshops, whilst furniture on the square has been designed by Manchester School of Art and Manchester Metropolitan University students.
Four hundred people from Manchester’s communities have handcrafted their own ceramic bells to ring at MIF19’s opening event, Yoko Ono’s Bells for Peace – and everyone is invited to bring a bell and join in this one-off public art event at 6pm on July 4.
People with lived experience of homelessness will also be telling their stories with daily artworks displayed on Festival Square, continuing the legacy of MIF17’s Manchester Street Poem.
Young people are getting involved, including children from schools across the city taking part in MIF19 as critics, as guides and as artists in major Festival events alongside international guests and creatives.
The Festival could not happen without the volunteers, whose knowledge, enthusiasm and energy are vital to its success. Over 500 are involved in MIF19 and as well as providing a big welcome for visitors, it’s an opportunity for them to gain experience, learn skills and make new friends.
Councillor Luthfur Rahman Manchester City Council’s executive member for culture, said: “MIF is an international festival with a Mancunian heart and it’s great to see local people getting involved and playing their part in contributing to it - this year more than ever.
"There’s a mass of things to get involved in right from the off with Yoko Ono’s Bells for Peace as well as lots of other free things to see and do right through the festival - so no excuses for not trying some of them out!”
To get involved in Manchester International Festival’s year-round events and activities or to find out about how people in the city have been helping shape this year’s Festival, head to mif.co.uk/my-festival.
