Three biennial festivals in, and all the signs are that we’re getting used to the idea of the Manchester International Festival.

On paper, the schedules have always been staggeringly ambitious and diverse. Previous years have given us operas by Damon Albarn and Rufus Wainwright, electro-pioneers Kraftwerk in Manchester Velodrome and haunted houses in disused tower blocks.

The concept of making 20 or more unique commissions happen in one city across a little over two weeks sounds challenging enough to achieve, but the bigger obstacle has been encouraging the public to have enough faith to do more than dip a sceptical toe in the waters.

Sitting in the dimly lit surroundings of New Century Hall on Friday night, though, waiting for Amadou  & Mariam’s concert to begin, I overheard encouraging discussions in neighbouring seats about the number of events people had attended this year.

Most had been to three or four shows – ranging from handsomely priced and off-the-wall events to the free children’s playground Music Boxes and various arts shows. Others had also spent the last fortnight enjoying the summer weather at the Pavilion, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the temporary space in Albert Square.

Bigger picture

MIF 2011, then, seems to be the year that everyone got the concept – that the programme is a complementary whole to be gobbled up as greedily as possible. And perhaps that’s because this year’s set of events, more so than in previous years, seemed to offer accessibility and coherence.

Victoria Wood is blossoming into an extraordinary director as her play about the Manchester School Children’s Choir, That Day We Sang, proved; Snoop Dogg revisiting Doggystyle, the album that made him, was a comfortable fit for the Apollo, while the Wagner recital at the Bridgewater Hall blended the composer’s brilliance with brand new ideas.

Other shows caught people out of their natural habitats – Johnny Vegas doing live theatre, Candi Staton singing in a Moss Side church as part of Sacred Sites, Paul Heaton showcasing a multi-part song/play in The 8th, Wu Lyf closing the roads to play under a railway bridge – but never too far that it required a leap of faith to buy a ticket.

There’s an argument to say that a festival with such groundbreaking ideals shouldn’t welcome back the same names year after year.

The counter argument, of course, is that the city’s familiarity with figures like performance artist Marina Abramovic, blind Malian singers Amadou & Mariam and Blur’s Damon Albarn now creates a unique buzz for the events they are part of; The Life And Death Of Marina Abramovic, Eclipse and Dr Dee were all hugely successful at the box office, despite being challenging shows to explain in advance.

Renewing old creative partnerships is just as valid as forming new ones if the result is a magical show. In 2011, that magic was achieved in different ways: Bjork at Campfield Market, for instance, combined the oddness of the Icelandic star with a peculiar venue and innovative instruments and technology, while Sinead O‘Connor floored crowds for three nights with some rare but simple performances.

New talent

Manchester often stands accused of parochialism, but MIF 2011 showed there’s room to celebrate a city’s past without ignoring its future.

Dave Haslam’s True Faith events offered a stage to some of Manchester’s best new music, while his intimate chats with local legends gave context to the city’s musical growth.

Equally, giving the ancient halls of Chetham’s School Of Music to virtuoso violinist Alina Ibragimova and avant-garde film makers The Quay Brothers was a masterstroke of marriages between an old Manchester institution and international superstars.

While the film work was underwhelming, Ibragimova’s interpretation of music by Bach, Berio, Biber and Bartok was breathtakingly beautiful.

There’s no confirmation finer than seeing 50 people raving in front of a DJ booth in the middle of the day that Festival Square pitched its programming absolutely right.

Free DJ sets in the Pavilion teepee kept the square busy all day. And it helped, of course, that the sun shone most of the time, turning the square and the rooftop terrace on the Glass House bar into a hub at lunchtime as well as a popular evening hangout that attracted an international gaggle of visitors and some interesting wildlife; seeing butterflies fluttering through the city centre was a first for me.

The opportunity to get stuck in was also a welcome feature of the festival, none more so than in Crash Of The Elysium, Punchdrunk’s Doctor Who-themed
adventure over at MediaCityUK, which finally allowed the adults to join the mission to save the Doctor because of popular demand.

But it was the arts that really allowed a mesmerising chance to be part of the event: Tony Oursler’s The Influence Machine saw hundreds of visitors repossess Whitworth Park every night to watch spooky faces beamed onto trees and eerie clouds of smoke; 11 Rooms at Manchester Art Gallery required audiences to be both spectators and participants; and Audio Obscura invited people to reconsider Piccadilly Station as a social melting pot as well as a travel hub.

Raising the bar this high means the challenge is on to meet it in 2013. Festival director Alex Poots is already in deep discussions about the next set of commissions, one of which – Vertical Farm, a concept to run a sustainable farm in a city centre tower block –  was discussed on the closing day of the festival
yesterday.

But who will be chosen?

The sensible money is on Damon Albarn keeping his long-running relationship with the festival alive somehow. And my money? I think Wu Lyf should pen the next opera; it’s a long shot, but isn’t that what MIF is all about?

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