The report found that many people attending the events of the fortnight-long festival last summer were experiencing arts, like opera, for the first time.
And the independent report praised the festival for exceeding all of its targets - including attracting more than 200,000 people to the range of events like Chinese opera Monkey - Journey To The West, and radical Johnny Vegas theatre piece Interiors.
But the report did criticise festival organisers for a lack of a huge, crowd-pleasing event to launch the programme - in the wake of Liverpool launching their year as European Capital of Culture with exactly that.
"Perhaps I misjudged that," festival director Alex Poots (pictured) admits. "It wasn't that we weren't looking, but we had always said we would be an artist-led event and nothing of that sort naturally emerged.
"We hope to build on the successes and learn from our mistakes to try to create a more ambitious festival for 2009."
And I can reveal the dates for the second festival have now been set for July 2-19, 2009.
Praised
Last year's £9m showcase which broke even, was praised in the report for securing the greatest amount of sponsorship ever raised by a UK arts festival, including £2.3m from Manchester council.
It found that half of the locals who attended agreed that the festival "helps make Manchester a world-class cultural city" and as many as 27 per cent of attendees were either not the usual audience for arts events, or were lured into trying something different.
"I was quietly surprised and pleased by that," says Alex. "It just goes to show that this notion that arts festivals are always attended by a certain kind of audience isn't true. It was thrilling that nearly a third of the audience for Monkey - Journey To The West had never been to an opera before.
"That was an uncompromising and serious piece on many levels, but it was also fun."
Organisers hope to build on the success of last year's inaugural event and have been boosted by the findings in today's report, commissioned by the festival and jointly researched by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre and Arts About Manchester.
There are already nearly two dozen commissions under way for next year and they have also announced The Manchester Open for artists or organisations in Manchester, offering up to £100,000 each for up to three commissions to be produced as part of the 2009 or 2011 festival.
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