Manchester International Festival awarded £1 million

Published Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 17:25 by Alistair Smith

Manchester International Festival has been awarded £1 million by Arts Council England to support its programme of work for the next two biennial events.

It is understood that the arts council had intended to include the event in its recent wide-ranging announcement of subsidy for the next three years, but details of the cash had not been confirmed in time. The investment will see £500,000 given to the festival in 2008/9 and the same amount again in 2009/10. ACE supported the initial MIF in 2007 with £550,000 of strategic funds and an extra £200,00 of Lottery money.

Festival director Alex Poots commented: “We are particularly grateful to the arts council for being the first of our partners to increase their support for the 2009 festival. This is also a great boost for the arts in the north-west as it represents additional funding for the region.”

The announcement came soon after an independent report for the festival highlighted that the event generated an economic value of £28.8 million for the region. During the event 200,930 attendees and 87 arts and community organisations engaged with the festival.

The ACE investment represents around 10% of MIF’s total income. One of the 2007 festival’s main sponsors - The Bruntwood Group - was awarded The Stage Award for Special Achievement in Regional Theatre at last year’s Theatrical Management Association Theatre Awards.