MIF17: Festival Square at Albert Square
Chris Horkan
Festival Square, the home of Manchester International Festival, takes over Albert Square for 16 days and nights. From noon until late, the square will feature great food and drinks, plus free live music and nightly DJs, to provide the perfect meeting point pre- and post-show.
Highlights include a free show by Canal Street’s male voice sensations The Sunday Boys (Sun 9 July, 5.30pm), plus DJ sets in the Pavilion from the likes of Dave Haslam (Sat 8 July), Hattie Pearson (Fri 30 Jun), Greg Thorpe (Fri 14 July) and The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess (Sat 1 July).
Foodies will be keen to discover treats from Paul Heathcote & Co, Honest Crust, Hispi, Manjit’s Kitchen and Ginger’s Comfort Emporium, while local brewery JW Lees has produced an exclusive Festival Ale and Festival Lager to mark the occasion.
In the Pavilion Theatre, meanwhile, Chapel Street festival Sounds From The Other City has teamed up with local promoters to put together a diverse musical line-up – from New York City avant-garde composer William Basinski (Wed 5 July, 7.30pm), via Liverpool electro trio Stealing Sheep (Sat 8 July, 7.30pm) and Leeds noise merchants Hookworms (Sun 2 July, 7.30pm), to Oldham’s precocious 21-year-old Kiran Leonard (Wed 12 July, 7.30pm) – all priced at £12.
With other musical highlights from as far away as the Caribbean and Columbia, plus BambinO – an opera for babies – this promises to be Festival Square’s most entertaining and diverse outing to date.
