Manchester's cultural festival is a hit, but how are other big English cities faring?
Tim Bloxham, Manchester International Festival Chairman, has told the BBC that ticket sales to the third bi-annual event are selling faster than ever before. It runs this year from 30 June to 17 July and aims ultimately to be one of the world's great festivals. The two previous MIFs in 2007 and 2009 were warm-ups for this year's extravaganza of "original new works and one-off events".
MIF in 2011 showcases the likes of singer-songwriters Damon Albarn from London, Bjork from Iceland and Mancunian Victoria Wood, as well as New York-based Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović. Artists include Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor, American entertainer and rapper Snoop Dogg, Mancunian band Wu Lyf, American musician and singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, Lancastrian actor and comedian Johnny Vegas, Yorkshire (ex-Cheshire) singer-songwriter Paul Heaton, and American soul and gospel singer Candi Staton.
After the successful 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester pondered how to realise its considerable ambition. The city had become famous for sport, regeneration and commerce, Bloxham told the BBC, but it needed to be "famous for culture." It has developed a reputation for contemporary music, but now "this is the real effort to put Manchester on the international map as a centre of culture" said Bloxham. The driving force behind the festival is Alex Poots, its competant Director, who's attracted the line-up of artists.
MIF has secured £0.5m per year (until 2014/5) in Arts Council Funding, but also receives boosts from "ticket sales, private sector sponsorship and local authorities" says the BBC.
Manchester is England's third largest city. With top seven figures taken from the draft April 2007 GDP-PPP estimates for metropolitan regions published by demographia.com, and the last three cities' populations noted from wikipedia, this is the Top Ten:
- London (Greater London Urban Area) – 13.9m
- Birmingham (West Midlands Urban Area) – 2.6m
- Manchester (Greater Manchester Urban Area) – 2.5m
- Leeds-Bradford (West Yorkshire Urban Area) – 2.1m
- Newcastle (Tyneside) – 1.4m
- Liverpool (Urban Area) – 1.4m
- Sheffield (Urban Area) – 1.3m
- Nottingham (Urban Area) – 0.7m
- Bristol (Urban Area) – 0.6m
- Brighton (Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton) – 0.5m
Aside London, which has a huge array of festivals and events, how do the other eight compare?
The smallest of these, Brighton, regards itself as a city of festivals. These include the Brighton Great Escape, described by visitbrighton.com as "Europe's leading new music festival, the Great Escape showcases over 200 new local and international artists across 25 venues over 3 days. Past local performers made big include the Kooks and Pigeon Detectives." But what of world famous artists?
Are Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle competing with London and Manchester? England hosts a long list of festivals. Some (not necessarily located in cities) are world renowned, like Glastonbury which is staged in rural Somerset.
MIF tickets are being snapped up despite hard times. "Sales are faster than previous years, with about 30% of tickets for some shows being bought by people abroad" reports the BBC. There's profit to be had and commerce to be generated from these huge happenings, clearly.
Why don't other big cities plan to attract domestic visitors and foreign tourists by staging similar sized events sporting globally famous line-ups? Or does Manchester have a near-monopoly on urban ambition or generating wealth and growth from the arts?
Check out all commentaries in the Index here.
No comments:
Post a Comment