This ritualistic performance invites its audience to become a part of the show, as musicians and dancers move throughout the room, sometimes taking listeners with them. In this exciting UK premiere of The Otheroom, everything is in motion.
17 (£14 concession/online)
hcmf// presents the only UK performance of the late Pauline Oliveros’ elemental Primordial/Lift, featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Manchester-based ensemble Distractfold, joined by Fritz Hauser, IONE and Anne Bourne.
22 (£19 concession/online)
American folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon makes his Huddersfield debut on the final evening of this year’s festival. He will present nine brand new compositions, assisted (and sometimes challenged) by a selection of guest musicians for this largely improvised concert.
17 (£14 concession/online)
Austrian quartet Nikel and German singer Mohna close hcmf// 2017 with Alexander Schubert’s rave-inspired work Supramodal Parser. A multi-sensory investigation of ‘letting-go’, it will be an apt, party-like ending to this year’s festival programme.
17 (£14 concession/online)
Bates Mill started life as a spinning mill founded around the turn of the century making woolen yarn. The Blending Shed is a 5,000 sq ft multi-purpose space.
Folk-pop five-piece Keston Cobblers Club have won critical praise for their joyous live shows. Experience it for yourself at Gorilla – where they will be joined by Jinnwoo and Jack Rutter for Manchester Folk Festival’s Friday night celebration.
From £17
Raw and energetic, Stick In The Wheel offer a fresh take on English folk music. The London five-piece, twice nominated for a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award, followed their debut album, From Here, with a collaborative project of English folk field recordings, recorded live on location.
From £13
Promising energy and innovation, Afro Celt Sound System draw inspiration from European and West African folk music traditions. Their live show is a breath-taking spectacle – and justifiably heads up the largest event of this year’s Manchester Folk Festival.
From £23.50
Named Best Duo at the 2015 BBC Folk Awards, singer Josienne Clarke and guitarist Ben Walker have gone on to establish themselves as major talents on the English folk scene. For this unusual lunchtime concert, catch them perform in HOME’s Theatre 2.
From £13
A collaboration between multi-award winning singers and guitarists Jim Moray and Sam Carter, False Lights wear influences of Radiohead alongside Fairport Convention. Live, the six-piece band produce a loud, explosive and original take on folk-rock.
From £17
This part-dramatisation, part-performance takes the audience back to Russia in 1936 to tell the shocking story behind Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. Beyond the Score features multimedia performance and film, as well as Sir Mark Elder conducting the Hallé through this famous orchestra piece.
From £13.50
Manchester Collective’s latest outing focuses on Messiaen’s harrowing masterpiece, Quartet for the End of Time, which was composed during the French composers time in a Nazi POW camp. Hear it performed, alongside works by Ravel and Stravinsky, in the Stoller Hall – the city’s brand new, high-spec concert hall.
From £12.00
