Hooky: MIF leaves 95pc of Manchester wondering what on earth is going on...
PETER Hook has criticised Manchester International Festival, claiming the 18-day celebration of arts, music and culture is lost on most Mancunians.
The biennial festival goes over the heads of most, he said.
“I do think that it’s a little bit high art, a little bit pretentious, and in my opinion it sort of leaves a large population of Manchester wondering what the hell is going on, and I have to include myself in that, I’m afraid,” said the Manchesterbased musician.
“It seems just a little bit divorced from 95 per cent of the people in Manchester.”
MIF received £2m of funding from Manchester council this year and Hook added: “I don’t know whether it’s me, but the fact that you can give Damon Albarn all that money, as they have done, and you can’t get your bin emptied, is quite a large contradiction.”
New Order and Joy Division – bands which were both cofounded by Hook – were a focal point of MIF this year.
Hook’s acrimonious split with New Order has been complicated, and a lengthy legal battle is still ongoing, but he insists that this has nothing to do with his opinions on the festival.
He also offered to play with Hacienda Classical at MIF, but according to Hook, they turned him down.
“They said no, because it was too nostalgic. And then, what’s the main attraction? New Order playing all the back catalogue,” he said.
“Isn’t that nostalgic? It’s the politics of it, they leave me a little dry at the moment.
“I don’t think it’s a bad relationship, maybe it’s just being included, shall we say. It would have been wonderful, but we went off and did Glastonbury as the Hacienda Classical in another way.
“But to be turned down by MIF is quite sad actually. I was a little bit annoyed about that,” added Hook, who was speaking to the M.E.N. ahead of his appearance at Rewind Festival North in Cheshire.
MIF which ran from June 29 to July 16, included a musical drama about the Lancashire Cotton Famine, a play-meetspanel discussion imagining if women ruled the world and an opera for babies.
It opened with a public catwalk in Piccadilly Gardens, which more than 150 Mancunians from all walks of life were invited to parade along. It was one of a number of free events including the True Faith exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery and Festival Square, which featured street food stalls, bars and music performances in Albert Square. The festival’s estimated economic benefit to Greater Manchester this year has yet to be released but was put at £38.8m after the last festival in 2015. Manchester International Festival declined to respond to Hook’s comments.