MIF17: 2017 Festival programme revealed

The first edition of Manchester International Festival under new artistic director John McGrath, MIF17 combines ambitious work with a strong community focus and features several large-scale, free public events taking place across the two weeks (29 Jun-16 Jul).

Opening with What Is the City but the People?, a promenade event in Piccadilly Gardens in which individuals from across Manchester will come together in a display of diversity, the festival closes with Ceremony, a 'welcoming party' incorporating film, music and public celebration conceived by Turner Prize-nominated artist Phil Collins that will see a statue of Friedrich Engels – retrieved from the former Soviet Union and driven across Europe – installed in the city centre.

On the middle weekend, artist Susan Hefuna presents ToGather: everyone is invited to a performance by residents newly arrived in Manchester from countries including Iran and Sierra Leone, who will trace paths through Whitworth Park, their movements echoed by dancers from Company Wayne McGregor.

MIF17: programme highlights

In a series of intimate shows, New Order and Liam Gillick, working with composer-arranger Joe Duddell, will take over Stage 1 of Old Granada Studios to deconstruct, rethink and rebuild material from throughout the group's career – joined by a 12-piece synthesiser ensemble, in an environment devised by Gillick that will respond dynamically to the music. An exhibition, True Faith, will further explore the band's influence through work by artists including Mark Leckey, Kathryn Bigelow, Julian Schnabel and Jeremy Deller, all inspired by New Order and Joy Division.

Arrival composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's Last and First Men brings together Tilda Swinton, the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Daníel Bjarnason in a multi-media work offering a poetic meditation on memory, loss and the idea of utopia. Based on a cult sci-fi novel, Last and First Men sets images of a futuristic yet decaying monumental landscape, filmed by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen in the former Yugoslav republics, against Swinton’s narration and Jóhannsson’s orchestral soundtrack, performed live by the Philharmonic.

Music at MIF17

Dark Matter, a programme of live music events curated by BBC Radio 6Music DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, brings artists including Holly Herndon, Sunn O))) and Colin Stetson to Gorilla and The Ritz, with 'new universes' conceived for each show by lighting designer Stuart Bailes.

The Music for a Busy City strand takes six leading composers including Anna Meredith and Matthew Herbert out of the concert hall and into spaces around Manchester, creating music for environments including Victoria Station, the Town Hall and even the walkway connecting Selfridges and Marks & Spencer.

Arcade Fire play a one-off concert at Castlefield Bowl, six years since they last appeared in Manchester, and the central hub of MIF, Festival Square in Albert Square features live line-ups curated by Sounds from the Other City festival and local promoters including Grey Lantern and Now Wave, with acts as diverse as Spring King, Portico Quartet and Hookworms all on the bill.

Manchester International Festival 2017: Theatre

MIF17 welcomes an audacious piece of theatre by director Thomas Ostermeier of Berlin's revered Schaubühne, Returning to Reims, which explores the rise of populism and features celebrated German actor Nina Hoss.

Cotton Panic!, created by Jane Horrocks, Nick Vivian and Wrangler (Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire's new band), tells the story of the Cotton Famine precipitated by the American Civil War – and its catastrophic effects on the North of England in the 1860s.

Three titans of post-war American culture come together in Available Light, a new production of choreographer Lucinda Childs, architect Frank Gehry and composer John Adams' original 1983 collaboration.

And choreographer Boris Charmatz presents 10000 Gestures, an ambitious and emotive work staged in the vast space of Mayfield in which 25 dancers will perform, without repetition, 10000 movements.

These pieces join already-announced shows What If Women Ruled the World? and Fatherland, plus a wild and wacky interactive piece, Party Skills for the End of the World, which promises to teach us useful tools for the apocalypse.

Family-friendly theatre includes The Welcoming Party where, walking alongside people who have travelled from far afield to be in Manchester, participants are encouraged to think about what it's like to feel different. Migration is a prominent subject in the programme, also tackled in an immersive installation piece by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, HOME1947, which looks at the experiences of people who left their homes during the Partition of British India in 1947, the largest mass migration ever witnessed.

Underworld to work with Manchester's homeless

Conceived by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith from Underworld, Manchester Street Poem will spotlight the stories of those who find themselves homeless in the city, produced with support from Manchester Homelessness Partnership and Mustard Tree. As Hyde covers the walls of a city centre venue with words and phrases drawn from the streets, the space will fill with a powerful soundtrack built on snatches and fragments recorded by Smith all over the city.

Clubs, parties and talks

As ever, Manchester International Festival is bookended by clubs and parties from the likes of Drunk At Vogue and Friends & Family.

The two-day conference-style event Interdependence will return, with talks programmed by MIF, FutureEverything, the Guardian and VICE. 

Reggie Gray's thrilling New York dancers FlexN (a hit from MIF15) will be in residence at Contact Theatre, and there's much more besides.

Read our interview with artistic director John McGrath to find out more about this year's programme.

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Manchester International Festival 2017, 29 June - 16 July

Find full listings and ticket information at mif.co.uk.