Manchester International Festival wins big this week

It's quite an amazing time for MIF. 

Having recently made their first announcements for MIF15, with 'Tree of Codes', 'The Age of Starlight' and 'The Tale of Mr Tumble' leading the run up to the full announcement in February, a further statement was made revealing that MIF15 would be the final one for Alex Poots, CEO and Artistic Director since the Festival began.

This week, MIF13 won the prestigious award for 'Large Tourism Event of the Year' at the Manchester Tourism Awards, and this was closely followed by the incredible news from the Chancellor George Osborne that Manchester would be receiving £78 million to put towards the creation of a new arts and theatre space on the site of the old Granada building, which will be a permanent home for MIF. It will be called The Factory.

It's amazing news for both Manchester and its flagship arts festival. Currently biennial, MIF has commissioned some of the most innovative art in the city, much of which continues to tour across the world. Artists such as Bjork, Damon Albarn, Victoria Wood, Marina Abramovic and Tino Sehgal have all created work for the festival, and its new home means that, with a seated capacity of 2,200 and a standing one of 5,000, new work from all over the world will be attracted to the city.

A statement from Manchester Council suggested that investment in The Factory will allow Manchester to provide the only real counterbalance in the country to London for the arts.

The Factory will open in 2019.