Manchester International Festival to go ahead with Covid looming large

There will be dancing in the streets, an exhibition in a shopping centre and Cillian Murphy on screen playing a man "apologising for everything" at the 2021 Manchester International Festival.

The 18-day event will go ahead in July, although the impact of Covid will be felt in the content of some shows and exhibitions, and how they are staged.

"One of the things Covid has inspired us to do is to put as much work as possible throughout the city so you can just bump into it," artistic director John McGrath said.

Events of the past year including the pandemic and Black Lives Matter have influenced the performances and art exhibitions that will form the festival, which takes place every two years.

Events that have been reworked to be Covid-safe include the opening night on 1 July, 10 days after the earliest possible date following the end of lockdown restrictions.

A chain of professional and non-professional dancers, including more than 150 local residents, will now be spaced along Deansgate, choreographed by Boris Charmatz, for audiences to watch as they walk down the street.

McGrath said performers would be "distanced from each other but joining up beautifully in your mind as you walk".

"There are probably only a small number of projects that are unaffected, either practically or thematically by the last year, and that's because all of the work is being made new in the moment that we're in," he explained.

"Artists, like all of us, are living through this, so this is part of what's been in their minds and heads.

"For some people, this is all about now creating a moment of joy and excitement as we emerge, hopefully, back into the world. For others, it's about creating a space for thoughtfulness and reflection."

Also outdoors, a replica of a toppled Big Ben will be built out of political books by Argentine artist Marta Minujín in Piccadilly Gardens.

Cephas Williams will hang his portraits of 100 black British people in the Arndale Centre and elsewhere in the city, while an essay by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, written following the death of her father last year, will be adapted for the stage.

There will be fewer major theatre shows than usual, though. On screen, Peaky Blinders star Murphy will be seen in a short film with a soundtrack by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National and Mercury Prize-nominated electronic artist Jon Hopkins.

Artist Christine Sun Kim will put captions describing the sounds of Manchester around the city, from the sides of buildings to a banner being towed overhead by a biplane.

The Factory, the delayed and over-budget £186m arts venue that is currently being built to be the festival's future home, will be opened to the public for the first time over one weekend for an installation by opera and theatre director Deborah Warner.

There will also be exhibitions from human rights activists Forensic Architecture, Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost and poet Lemn Sissay; and gigs by Arlo Parks and Patti Smith.