MIF 2007: bigger and better than ever.

Quickfire

The Manchester International Festival, which in 2005 witnessed the first Gorillaz live performance without their animated personas, is back this year. Festival director Alex Poots talks about the plans for the 2007 event.

MIF is very different to a conventional festival. Can you talk about how it came together and what its aims are?

It is different - when I was first asked by the city to set it up to celebrate artists and culture from around the world, my immediate thought was, "There are quite a lot of festivals already." So, unless we could create a new cultural experience, rather than imitate, there wasn't much point doing it.

I spoke to [acclaimed designer] Peter Saville, who said Manchester had given birth to the modern industrial city, so I thought a festival of world premieres would be appropriate. I wanted to build the festival on the strengths of the city. Manchester is music, and what I wanted was for acts to come and either unveil new material or do something unusual for them.

How did you persuade Lou Reed to come and play his Berlin album for the first time in the UK?

We fought hard for it. We're a young festival, but what clinched it was that we give performers a chance to do something they wouldn't have done before. We're not doing it to make a bunch of cash, but for the love of the music. I've been involved with Barbican and Somerset House gigs, where the ethos is similar. We had a good offer with the same money as other festivals and we can pay the going rate, but the context is different.