Factory International

Announcing our MIF25 lineup... 👀 Manchester International Festival (MIF) is back! This year’s programme is your chance to Dream Differently - envision new possibilities, brighter futures and utopian spaces. With new works from both international and homegrown artists, we're inviting audiences to celebrate Manchester as a global hub of creative innovation and experience a wide-ranging, multi-artform programme of groundbreaking world premieres. The festival will span Aviva Studios, partner venues such as HOME, the Royal Exchange Theatre, The Whitworth and the Royal Northern College of Music, unique found spaces on the city streets and beyond to the boroughs of Rochdale (Rochdale Development Agency) and Wigan. Creative Director at Factory International, Low Kee Hong says: “It has been an incredible journey building the MIF25 programme with such a diverse range of artists from around the world whose voices are ever more critical in these challenging times.” This year's lineup includes... 👉 A Single Man 👉 An Inheritance 👉 Balmy Army x Balmy UKRAINE 👉 Blackhaine: And Now I Know What Love Is 👉 Everything is Recorded 👉 Factory Settings: Superflux 👉 FALE SĀ / SACRED HOUSE 👉 Football City, Art United. 👉 Germaine Kruip: A Possibility 👉 Juliet Ellis: A Symphony of Flesh and Bones 👉 Liberation 👉 Mary Anne Hobbs & Anna Phoebe: WHAT DO YOU WANT? 👉 Ruhaniyat (رُوحانیت) - An Orchestral Sufi Experience 👉 Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge 👉 Shilpa Gupta: Untitled 👉 Sounds of the East 👉 Surround Sounds - 20 Years of Sounds from the Other City 👉 THE HERDS 👉 Venture Arts: Michael Beard MIF25 takes place in Manchester from 3-20 July 2025. Aviva £10 Tickets are available across the festival. 🎫 Become a Factory International Member and book tickets now. 🎟️ General tickets are on sale on Wednesday 19 March at 10am. 🔗 Explore our MIF25 programme: https://lnkd.in/eYuEGivv With thanks to Arts Council England and Manchester City Council and our media partners for MIF25, The Guardian and Manchester Evening News. #MIF25

Mumford and Sons join us at Aviva Studios for an exclusive, up-close set as part of the Amazon Music City Sessions series, presented by Aviva 🎵 Mumford & Sons are back with an emphatic new sound, returning with their first album in nearly seven years, RUSHMERE, as well as playing some of their fan favourites. It's the fourth edition in the City Sessions series. Featuring some of the biggest names performing on intimate stages in unique venues, the City Sessions spans musical genres offering fans a unique opportunity to tune in to a once-in-a-lifetime show from some of their favourite artists. For those not there in person, the performance will be streamed live on Prime Video and the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch. The general ballot is now open and closes on Monday 10 March at 10am. 🔗 More info: https://lnkd.in/eDCBz8CR

The Creative Careers Festival - Greater Manchester’s largest creative and cultural industries career festival - is coming to Aviva Studios 💼 Looking for employment in the creative and cultural industries? Join the ultimate careers festival to supercharge your creative career. Factory Academy has partnered with TikTok Creative Academy (Catch22) to create the Creative Careers Festival. The festival includes... 👥 Speed Mentoring – Get one-on-one career advice from top industry professionals across marketing, media, production and more. 🤝 Meet Employers – Connect with leading creative organisations, explore job opportunities and discover ways to get your foot in the door. 💬 Inspiring Talks – Hear from creative experts on how to break into the industry, land opportunities and build a thriving career. 📸 Professional Headshots – Step up your online presence with a free high-quality portrait by a photographer. 📝 CV Clinic – Bring your CV (printed or digital) and get insider tips on how to make it stand out. 🗣️ Creative Networking – Meet like-minded creatives, share ideas and build connections that could lead to your next big opportunity. ☕ Exclusive Perk – First 100 attendees get a free drink to kick off the festival in style! Share this with your network or via a DM 📥 🔗 Interested? Book your free ticket now: https://lnkd.in/eN9r3gwS

Break through the creative industry with Factory Academy 🎥 Searching for your next creative opportunity? Not sure where to start? Join an exciting cohort of fellow students at Aviva Studios and meet creatives from across Manchester and beyond with Factory Academy. Our free training programmes have trained over 1000 Greater Manchester residents since Factory Academy launched in 2018. From the basics of sound and lighting to the ins and outs of content creation, our courses offer practical learning, skills-based training and first-hand industry experience. We're currently recruiting for our course Managing Creative Projects, which gives you the opportunity to project manage, learning how to make a plan and execute it - on time, on budget, and on point. 📋 Managing Creative Projects 📆 Deadline to apply: Sunday 9 March If you know someone who might be interested, share this with your network or via a DM 📥 🔗 For more information about Factory Academy, including more information about Managing Creative Projects, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/e9nwqdf3 Factory Academy is supported by Aviva and the Law Family Charitable Foundation.

Introducing the next cohort of Greater Manchester musicians joining Factory Sounds in 2025 🎵 Factory Sounds is our annual programme designed to support and raise the profile of the music industry in Greater Manchester. Every year we support 11 extraordinary people working in music. This year we’re increasing this support to 15 talented individuals. The cohort will receive support from Factory International including meeting with specialist members of the Factory International team to help their artistic development, three mentorship sessions with an industry member and £1000 to support their creative development. The cohort for 2025 are: 👉 Beck Pocket 👉 Bennettiscoming 👉 Ewan Sim 👉 Grumpy 👉 Hakeeb Ibrahim 👉 Olivesque 👉 PAVÉ 👉 PoolEra 👉 RIYA 👉 Shanika Sunrise 👉 Shell Company 👉 Superlative 👉 Tallulah Guard 👉 Victoria Jane 👉 Zuri This year's Factory Sounds cohort is supported by adidas. 🔗 Read more about each artist from this year's cohort: https://lnkd.in/eqZHxs9y

Want to be part of Manchester International Festival 2025? Apply to be a volunteer! Manchester International Festival (MIF) returns this summer and we’re looking for 400 people to join our awesome team of festival volunteers. Volunteers have been part of the MIF story from the very beginning. Their energy and enthusiasm have helped us to stage cutting edge art and events across nine festivals and counting. There are lots of ways to get involved as a volunteer from helping behind the scenes to greeting the public at our events. Whether you love art, music and culture, or you just want to try something new, we’re looking for Mancunians of all kinds to join the team. 📆 The deadline for applications is 28 April 2025. 🔗 Apply now: https://lnkd.in/eCCsBZhr

💼 JOB OPPORTUNITIES - FEBRUARY 💼 We've got a number of vacancies currently open at Factory International, including roles for our upcoming Manchester International Festival (MIF) taking place in July. Check out the latest job opportunities below 👇 🎭 Event Manager (Public Realm Programme) - fixed term 📆 7 March 🎭 Executive Producer (Events) - fixed term 📆 7 March 🏨 Festival Accommodation Coordinator 📆 7 March 👥 Festival Artist Liaison Administrator 📆 7 March 👥 Festival Artist Liaison Coordinator 📆 7 March 👫 Guest Liaison Coordinator 📆 9 March 👫 Guest Liaison Assistant 📆 9 March 🎭 Freelance Production Managers 📆 N/A If you know someone who might be interested, share this with your network or via a DM 📥 For more information and to apply, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/dcPAnUrq

Introducing our Factory International 2025 Fellows! The Factory Fellowship provides six artists based in the North to scale up their ambition. Each Fellow will follow how we make work at Aviva Studios and, for this year's cohort, at MIF25. As part of the fellowship, artists receive mentoring opportunities, coaching, observational placements, peer-to-peer learning and access to Factory International staff and our creative teams as well as monthly meetings with our Creative Director Low Kee Hong. The programme builds on previous successful programmes – MIF Jerwood/Creative Fellows and Factory Fellows – which have supported 30 artists/creatives from the region since 2017 thanks to the initial support of the Jerwood Foundation. This year's Fellows are: 👉 Christian Asare 👉 Elliot Hughes 👉 Linda Devo 👉 Shemel Rose-Thompson 👉 Sonny Nwachukwu 👉 Stefanie Reynolds Get to know more about our Fellows - our Fellows have shared more about their work, who they are and what it means to them to become a Fellow. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/eEZws4yB

Congratulations to our Factory Academy x HEADS alumni who showcased their final portfolio last week 🎉 Factory Academy x HEADS alumni were invited to a special private exhibition at Aviva Studios. Joined by Manchester City Council, the exhibition featured their final portfolio work which students planned and delivered from start to finish with expertise from HEADS - specialists in digital marketing. Factory Academy, which launched in 2018, provides free training programmes to nurture the technicians, producers and arts professionals of the future. Over 1000 local people have graduated from more than 40 different programmes, providing skills for careers from event managers, musicians, and teachers to production managers and technicians. Want to offer your expertise as an employer? We'd love to hear from you and what you could offer regarding skills and training opportunities for our young people at Factory International. 🔗 For more information and to get in touch, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/e9nwqdf3 Factory Academy is supported by Aviva and The Law Family Charitable Foundation. 📸 Photography by Joe Barker

Meet Fusion Factory - the 14 Greater Manchester residents turned co-curators presenting playable artwork Those Who Hold Up The Sky with artists BRiGHT BLACK 🏙️ Over the past six months, Fusion Factory have been dreaming up the new artwork with BRiGHTBLACK, an artist collective led by Simon Wilkinson and Myra Appannah whose work has featured at Tate Modern and toured to 36 nations. Those Who Hold Up The Sky is a playable exhibition taking over the North Warehouse for its world premiere in March 2025. The city-building game invites you into a world of physical and virtual play where you can remix Manchester - made in response to Fusion Factory wanting to see Greater Manchester reflected in the artwork. We met with the 14 Mancunians to hear why they wanted to get involved with Fusion Factory and what they can bring to the project. 🔗 Read more about the co-curators: https://lnkd.in/ecrcNsXT