Manchester International Festival - 2011 Festival

2011 Festival

The 2011 edition of the festival ran from 30 June to 17 July 2011 and staged 27 original projects, featuring artists and performers such as Björk, Damon Albarn, Snoop Dogg, Marina Abramovic, Victoria Wood, WU LYF, D/R/U/G/S and Air Cav, along with the Punchdrunk work The Crash of the Elysium. Manchester International Festival's director Alex Poots stated that "the most important thing for us to do is make an artistically and culturally important festival that is of the highest quality". The abolition of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, which contributed £900,000 to the 2009 festival, resulted in a loss of funding for 2011's Manchester International Festival.

Björk began the 2011 festival, with the live debut of her new album Biophilia, with Dave Simpson of The Guardian stating that she "provided a stunning visual display", adding that "the Icelandic singer made a typically eye-popping entrance on huge platform shoes and sporting blue and white facepaint". Sinéad O'Connor also performed at the festival, earning favourable reviews; Pamela Owen of the Daily Mail, whilst acknowledging that "she clearly wowed the audience", however, criticised her "dowdy" appearance and described her as wearing a "mumsy trouser-suit".

Damon Albarn debuted his opera Doctor Dee, based on the life of Elizabethan scientist and philosopher John Dee, at the Palace Theatre. Directed by Rufus Norris, the production was described as "by no means an opera in the conventional sense" by The Guardian's Alfred Hickling, who described Dr Dee as "an erudite affair", giving it four stars.