The joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) is attached.

The seventh biennial Manchester International Arts Festival (MIF) was held between 4 July 2019 to 21 July 2019. A joint report submitted by the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) presented an evaluation of the success of the festival. The report also explained the transition that would need to take place over the next two years, in anticipation of the opening of The Factory in 2021/22.

The objectives for the 2019 Festival had been:

·         To continue to grow the international reputation of the Festival and the city – with artists, audiences, partners and media coverage from all five continents and from a wide variety of backgrounds – in turn driving reach for the festival, attracting people to the city and the best staff to our team.

·         To bring the most extraordinary artists from around the world to Manchester to create diverse and inspiring new work – made in Manchester and shared across the globe.

·         To connect in new and ever-deeper ways with the city and region of Manchester, increasing the range and diversity of those engaging with the Festival, with an ever-more visible and transformative presence in the city.

·         To develop the brand, profile and awareness of MIF/The Factory locally, nationally and internationally in readiness for opening in 2021/22.

The report examined each of these in turn and set out the details of how well the objective had been achieved. The festival’s financial performance was also explained. Arts Council England had supported the Festival as one of its National Portfolio organisations and invested £10.5m over the two-year cycle, of which £9m was their contribution to the running of The Factory and to build MIF’s capacity to run the new facility. Box office income achieved during the Festival was on target at £1.1m. Co-commissioning income and co-producing value in kind support had made a contribution of just under £3m. The final amount raised from individual donors, corporate partners for MIF19 was £2.37m, including value in kind. MIF19 had been supported by 65 corporate sponsors and media partners.

The meeting was addressed by the artistic director and chief executive of Manchester International Festival, John McGrath. He said he felt the report painted a very positive picture of both the economic and the social impact of the 2019 festival. He spoke of the long-term collaborations with homelessness organisations in the city, and the 2,700 free tickets that had been given to targeted community groups to further develop the ownership of the festival amongst the people of Manchester.

On international impact, he felt that the festival had been the most successful ever including the £3m income from co-commissioning with other international arts bodies. Nine of the shows at the festival were now touring elsewhere in the world. The invitations for other arts leaders from around the world to visit the city and to see the development of The Factory had also been very successful.

The report recognised the importance and the valuable contribution of the volunteer programme with 507 people contributing nearly 16,000 volunteer hours to the festival.

The calculated economic benefit to the city was £50.2m, which was £10m over the target that had been set and £8m more than had been achieved in 2017.

The report referred to the Council’s financial support for the future of the festival and operation of The Factory. The budget for the two-year cycle ending 30 September 2019 had included the 2019 Festival and also some costs which were being incurred to ensure that the MIF organisation was well prepared to open and operate The Factory. In the future the budgets would need to recognise the Council’s commitments to the year-round operation of The Factory, as well as the biennial festival that would next take place in 2021. That consideration would be part of the coming budget setting processes.

We noted that the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at a recent meeting and had endorsed the recommendations (Minute CESC/19/46).

Decisions

1.         To note the substantial achievements of the 2019 Festival in overachieving its objectives, particularly in continuing to grow its international reputation, increasing co-commissioning partnerships, record attendance levels and increased involvement by Manchester emerging artists.

2.         To support the importance of maintaining public sector funding commitments in order to attract significant match funding from other public and private sector partners.

3.         To delegate authority to finalise the financial arrangements to the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer with the Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods, and in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources and Executive Member for Skills, Culture and Leisure.

4.         To note that the future budget for the festival and the support for The Factory would be considered as part of the 2020/21 budget setting processes in the coming months.