The International Festival returns to Milton Keynes this summer, with a programme underpinned by the contemporary themes of migration, community, identity and home - what connects us and what divides us.
Produced by The Stables every two years, IF: Milton Keynes International Festival returns for its fifth edition from Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July 2018
Highlights will include Catalan company Sarruga and their city-conquering Insectes taking over the streets for the free opening night event. IF: Milton Keynes International Festival is known for its stunning large-scale opening events.
For Insectes, giant mechanical insects parade through the city streets in a larger-than-life spectacle with music and special effects. Operated by cycle power, these mini-beasts become super-sized fantastical steam-breathing giants towering over cars and audiences, feasting on trees and staring into upper floor windows.
The Insectes weave their way through the city, ending up in Campbell Park for a firework finale. (Central Milton Keynes, Friday 20 July from 9.45pm)
The UK premiere of Halka by Groupe Acrobatique De Tanger from Morocco will play out at IF.
A collective of 14 acrobats and musicians offer their perspective on their hometown of Tangier. It will be performed in the Circus Hub within Middleton Hall in centre:mk, as part of the Festival’s celebrations of Circus250, marking 250 years of contemporary circus.
Groupe Acrobatique De Tanger is the biggest company that the Festival has ever brought to Milton Keynes.
(Circus Hub in Middleton Hall, centre:mk MK9 3EP from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 July)
La Cocina Pública, a mobile community kitchen housed in a shipping container from Chilean company Teatro Container.
Every city, town or village has its own secret recipes, the ones that don’t appear on official menus. The members of Teatro Container will work with the community in West Bletchley, Milton Keynes, to go in search of those recipes – and their associated stories. Using food to create social interaction, and drawing on local traditions and neighbourhood customs, La Cocina Pública brings communities together to cook, eat, and enjoy live music and conversation. The event is part of the company’s UK premiere tour (West Bletchley in Milton Keynes from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 July)
The only UK performances of Dutch theatre maker and visual artist Dries Verhoeven’s Phobiarama following its London premiere.
An artist who aims to highlight our socio-political reality, Verhoeven invites his audiences on board a theatrical ‘ghost train’ to explore our contemporary culture of fear, difference and migration with its ever-increasing threats and paranoia. Visitors will be swept along on a thought-provoking tour of today’s angst-fuelling media landscape that’s so often flawlessly exploited by politicians, terrorists, marketers and fake news. Campbell Park MK9 4AD from Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July (no performance on Tuesday 24 July)
The UK premiere of The Democratic Set Milton Keynes, a film made in three days by Australia’s Back To Back Theatre. Back To Back will work in collaboration with Milton Keynes residents and community groups to make a short film with a custom-made set to capture a series of short live performances and video portraits. (Filming in central Milton Keynes from Monday 23 to Wednesday 25 July, editing on Thursday 26 July, screening on Friday 27 July)
Jony Easterby’s immersive night-time adventure For the Birds - where sound and light take flight. At a historic woodland location, audiences embark on a self-guided journey following a trail of installations – performances, sound, projections and kinetic sculptures – which celebrate birds in song, movement and flight. Artists including Mark Anderson, Jony Easterby, Kathy Hinde and Ulf Pederson explore the boundaries between raw elemental materials, natural dynamics, sound technology and composition. (Linford Manor Park, Great Linford, nearest postcode MK14 5AX, from Friday 20 to Saturday 28 July)
The first English performances of Wind Resistance, a solo show created and performed by singer-songwriter Karine Polwart. An alchemic mix of song and story, Wind Resistance is a meditation on the moorland and wildlife of Polwart’s Midlothian home.
A hit at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2016, Wind Resistance was nominated for Best New Play, Best Production, Best Director and was Winner of Best Music & Sound at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2017. (The Stables, Wavendon, Milton Keynes MK17 8LU from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 July)
The UK premiere of For The Time Being from Holland’s Schweigman& and Slagwerk Den Haag. Dutch artist Boukje Schweigman, artistic director of Utrecht’s Schweigman& creates wordless visual and musical theatre which sharpens the senses.
Here she works with percussion group Slagwerk Den Haag to create For The Time Being, a playful experiment with the audience’s experience of time. This promenade performance is at Milton Keynes Theatre which sees the venue taking part in the International Festival for the first time. (Milton Keynes Theatre MK9 3NZ on Sunday 22 and Monday 23 July)
The UK Premiere of large-scale installation Life of Tree by Belgian company Theater Tol. Life of Tree consists of vast illuminated dresses, each symbolising a remarkable woman from history including Simone de Beauvoir and Florence Nightingale. Each dress has an accompanying soundtrack, spoken word and dance piece paying tribute to the women’s pioneering courage, strength and intelligence. (Festival Central, Campbell Park MK9 4AD from Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July (dance performance times to be announced)
The glamorous Spiegeltent has been a hit since its first outing in 2010 and will again serve up the best in music, comedy, family events and cabaret throughout the 10 days of the Festival, including Paul Young and Los Pacaminos, comedians Mark Watson and Tom Allen, folk music royalty Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band, Newton Faulkner and Comedy 4 Kids (The Spiegeltent, Campbell Park MK9 4AD from Friday 20 to Sunday 29 July)
For more festival information click here
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