So the MIF has been and gone and I missed the whole thing. It sounded like quite a good idea early on – a festival of all new work. But there was little if any fine art, there was music and, er, more music.
The more press releases I got (loads) the more disinterested I became, the only nod to art was the ‘Il Tempo Del Postino‘ at the Opera House in which artists had to present their work in some way to the audience. I thought about going to this but am so, so glad I didn’t. By all accounts I’ve read there were a few good bits but it was mostly rubbish, with the final act involving a wanking bull, urinating naked women and a man with a live dog on his head, was rubbish with animal cruelty and exploitation of women thrown in for good measure.
Read The Observer Review
It certainly wasn’t all new either. Festival performers included Lou Reed, The Fall, PJ Harvey, Bert Jansch, Beth Orton, Happy Mondays.. So New = Old has-beens apparently. Did they perform all new stuff? Of course not and if they did it would surely sound just like their old stuff.
There’ll be another MIF along in 2 years, hope its better next time.
Thankfully there was the ‘Not Part of Manchester International Festival‘ group of overlooked artists to put on a lot of their own exhibitions and performances.