Manchester International Festival

3 to 20 July 2025

Manchester International Festival, or MIF, is the city’s biennial arts festival. It’s two weeks of the year where you’re never quite sure what you might stumble across in the city’s parks, squares and unused spaces.

John Rylands Library transformed by Maxine Peake into a dystopian world where creative expression is outlawed? Audience members tasked with transferring transported water from Pakistan’s Soan River into the River Medlock? The 2023 edition was full of surprising, routine-interrupting, illuminating moments like this.

All the artworks and performances are original commissions that are shown in Manchester first. Many are then taken to galleries, stages and festivals around the world.

Manchester International Festival 2025

Now in its eighteenth year, the next festival takes place from 3 to 20 July 2025 and is taking over Aviva Studios, the city-centre and beyond.

The first work to be presented at MIF25 is Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man reimagined as a ballet performance. A depiction of queer love and loss, this pioneering mid-century novel, turned film, turned ballet premieres at MIF with live performance from celebrated singer-songwriter John Grant.

The Festival Square, where you can go for food and drink and free live music, is at Factory International’s outdoor space which overlooks the River Irwell.

Is that a zebra on Market Street? Events are taking place all over Manchester, including a city-wide stampede of puppet animals. THE HERDS, a visual dramatisation of the climate crisis by Creative Director Amir Nizar Zuabi, interrupts an orchestral performance by Manchester Camerata in a depiction of the peculiar migration patterns to come if the climate emergency isn’t addressed.

MIF’s music line-up includes Blackhaine, Richard Russel, Jyoti Nooran, Rushil Ranjan, WU LYF, and The Hallé, amongst many more.

Other highlights to look out for include knowledge, advice, jokes and objects curated by the children of Greater Manchester and displayed at Manchester Art Gallery as a time capsule for children in 2125.

In the world of visual art, look out for Germaine Kruip’s A Possibility, a project that brings together architecture, sceneography and music for an immersive experience that hands interpretation over to the audience.

The festival aims to be inclusive and accessible to everyone, so many events are free or priced at £10.

This is just a snap-shot of what’s on at MIF 2025. To see the full programme and get tickets, visit the Manchester International Festival website.