Manchester International Festival – Festival to Factory
Manchester International Festival (MIF) is an international arts festival staged every 2 years across various locations in Manchester, with a focus on presenting original work.
With the opening of The Factory in 2021, the organisation is transitioning from operating on a two-year cycle centred around an 18-day festival to year-round operation and venue management.
MIF has been involved in MAST from the very start. As chair of MAST in the first two years, it played an instrumental role in getting it off the ground. Challenges ranged from clearly defining the group’s purpose to difficulties in sourcing sustainable products and supplies. Despite the challenges, members continued sharing practices, resources and ideas, started gaining traction and growing commitment.
At the same time the sustainability policy which MIF developed at the time, provided a good starting point for establishing shared values across the MAST group, and individual organisations members worked hard to push their own teams towards greater sustainability.
“MIF worked well as MAST chair in the initial stages as we were nomads, we didn’t have a venue and didn’t compete with the other organisations across the city so we were able to galvanise them into joining together to make MAST work. The other critical thing at the start, was the agreement from the top of the companies to support our endeavours so that things were able to grow, and ambitious ideas allowed to flourish. We also relied heavily on the great work Julie’s Bicycle was doing and needed their expertise and support to help us steer the group.”
Jack Thompson, Technical Director, MIF
Greening the festival
Over the years, MIF has undertaken a wide range of measures to reduce festival impacts. It was the first international festival to be independently certified as meeting BS 8901, the original British Standard for Sustainable Event Management, and helped to develop ISO 20121, the international sustainable event management standard.
The MIF19 festival welcomed over 300,000 people, while 1.3 million people in 199 countries accessed the festival’s digital content. It featured many festival-wide sustainability initiatives such as: recycling or reusing 88% of sets and props; using local suppliers; the use of dedicated bicycles and electric vehicles; giving away 1,200 reusable water bottles to staff and artists, and; investing in digital marketing and e-tickets to reduce the need for printed materials. 37 staff members did Carbon Literacy training, and MIF plans to roll out the training, so that all staff have done it by the time MIF’s new purpose-built cultural space The Factory opens.
Individual MIF19 commissions also took sustainable actions. Staff collected packaging materials and old trainers for a scene in Invisible Cities that depicts frenetic consumerism and waste. Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ) donated over 400 metres of fencing to Manchester parks and around 300 straw bales to Wythenshawe Community Farm. All 11 food stalls for Animals served only vegan food and drinks over the weekend.
MIF19, Invisible Cities - Photo: Tristam Kenton
Skills and ambition for the future
The Factory, MIF’s new home is a new cultural space for creativity and arts in the heart of Manchester, where MIF will stage an ambitious and adventurous year-round creative programme. In 2021 MIF appointed a dedicated Environmental Sustainability Manager who will develop and deliver a holistic strategy to embed environmental sustainability as a core principle at MIF and The Factory.
Sustainability modules will also be incorporated into training at The Factory Academy, a partnership programme established with the aim of diversifying the sector’s workforce by helping people from all backgrounds to develop careers as technicians, producers and arts professionals. The intention is to become a major training centre for local people wanting to work in the creative industries and develop the new generation of professionals.
MIF’s business plan 2021-2025 includes commitments to both developing modules of sustainability training through The Factory Academy and developing international training programmes across a range of fields including producing, creative engagement, digital innovation, sustainable production
Other environmental commitments in the business plan include: developing a path to zero-carbon activity by 2025; inspiring audiences to think and act more sustainably through their artistic programme, community engagement and in-venue behaviour and innovations; working with industry partners to test and pilot innovative sustainability technology, and; developing models of sustainable production and transportation to support MIF’s international work in The Factory.
Find out more about Manchester International Festival on the MIF website
