The Factory

About

Opening in 2021

The Factory is a flagship new cultural venue led by Manchester City Council in partnership with the team behind Manchester International Festival.

On opening in 2020, The Factory will introduce the most exciting global artists to audiences of up to 850,000 a year, in an extraordinary world-class facility. Dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, popular culture and innovative contemporary work incorporating multiple media and technologies will come together in groundbreaking combinations. With space for the world’s greatest artists and thinkers to make, explore and experiment and for communities and individuals from Manchester and beyond to meet, exchange ideas and learn new skills, The Factory is a major intervention in the international cultural scene.

The Factory will capture the extraordinary vision, diversity and potential of Manchester’s cultural life. Inspired by the pioneering work of Manchester International Festival (MIF) the programme will focus on premieres of ambitious new work by the world’s leading creators, developed in partnership with local, national and international co-producers, giving audiences in Manchester the chance to see inspiring new work first, before its global journey. MIF will run the space year-round, while continuing to deliver the city-wide Festival every two years.

The Factory will be defined by its versatility. Hosting everything from major exhibitions to epic concerts and extraordinary installations and performances, the large warehouse space will have capacity for audiences of 5,000 standing, but it will also be easily configured into more intimate spaces. The adjoining theatre space is similarly flexible, with room for around 1600 people, and can be connected to the warehouse to form a single, super-sized venue of 7000+, where artists can imagine, create and present works of unmatched daring and ambition. Open 364 days a year, The Factory’s foyers and extensive outdoor space will house interactive performance, debate, food events and more, becoming a new kind of meeting place for visitors, staff and artists.