Soon thousands of bells are ringing out across the city as Yoko Ono opens the Manchester International Festival 2019 in Cathedral Gardens, with a free event sending a resounding message of peace from Manchester to the world.

It’s two years after the Arena bombing left 22 dead, and 50 years since the release of ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ penned by Beatles’ legends John Lennon and Paul McCartney… and perhaps also, Yoko Ono (depending on who you speak to).

From her early bed-in collaborations with husband, John Lennon in 1969, to her ongoing WAR IS OVER! campaign, Yoko Ono has boldly communicated her commitment to social justice over the past half-century, creating works that blur the boundaries between art, politics and society.

In her first major work for the city of Manchester, commissioned for MIF19, Ono makes an interactive call to ‘surrender to peace’.

Yoko, aged-86, isn’t here ‘in person’, but her presence is certainly felt as her activism is teleported to Manchester digitally. Ono’s image flashes on a huge screen high on the Urbis building, and we hear from her as she champions the work and spirit she started in the ‘60s. Bells are a means of inclusion. A way to allow the audience to interact with this art installation. Passive consumption is not an option today.

Live interviews capture where people have come from, why they’ve chosen the bell they brought and why they’ve come to Manchester today. The stories include a granddaughter who brought the bell her grandad had used to warn of danger during the Second World War. In addition to bells participants brought themselves, 4000 specially produced and engraved bells were distributed and none are left by the end.

The stage is a minimalist white affair. Site designers, Shizuka Hariu and Shin Hagiwara have created an imposing digital display above a sweeping white walk way. To the left of the stage a weathered bell, around three feet tall is suspended within a white frame. Its beauty and intrigue draw us in as we’re told it’s been borrowed from Chetham’s School of Music, but no one knows how it got there.

When the installation begins in earnest, Helvetica typeface script is flashed across the white screen to emphasise Yoko’s words “Ring to the trees, ring to the universe, ring with your heart, ring with your neighbour”.

The activist participants duly oblige. This is a modern happening. We’re encouraged to dig deep and within and remember our inner child – we are the artists the orchestra and the bells are our instrument. Emily Lim’s direction draws heavily on her tradition of working with communities and the inclusion of non-professionals.   

The event ends with a chorus of ‘Give Peace a Chance’ started on-screen and finished by the attendees in a cappella, long after the show has ended.

The only minor hiccup is caused by Yoko asking us to look to the sky and count the clouds. Then name them. This is Manchester. There is one cloud and it’s grey. If she’d been here, she’d have seen it. The audience roar with laughter – this hard to classify celebration event has been a success.

Yoko Ono’s Bells for Peace was a mass participatory art event to open MIF19 at Cathedral Gardens, Manchester on 4 July 2019.

Read our review of Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Tree.

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Over 18 extraordinary days, internationally-acclaimed artists from over 20 countries – many working in one-off creative collaborations – will present 20 UK and world premieres at the cross-art form biennial festival.

Yoko Ono will open the festival on July 4 with Bells for Peace, in which she’ll invite members of the public to gather in Cathedral Gardens to send a message of peace to the world. Fifty years after her early bed-in collaborations with John Lennon, this is a major new commission from an artist who has boldly communicated her commitment to social justice throughout her career. During the mass participatory event thousands of celebratory voices and a people’s orchestra of bells from the UK and abroad will ring and sing out for peace and welcome the world to Manchester.

Legendary film director, David Lynch is taking over HOME for the duration of MIF19. In the gallery My Head Is Disconnected is the first major UK exhibition of his large-scale paintings, drawings and sculpture. In the theatre Lynch collaborator Chrysta Bell will host a one-off series of live shows from Lynch-inspired musicians, while the cinema will feature screenings of his classic movies, short films, conversations and more.

Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah are collaborating on Tree, the story of a young man on a journey of healing, told through dance, music and film. The piece fulfils the pair’s long-held ambition to make a piece of work together inspired by South Africa. Directed by Kwei-Armah, with music inspired by Elba’s album Mi Mandela, Tree is an exhilarating show about identity, family and belonging.

John McGrath, MIF Artistic Director and Chief Executive says: “At MIF19 we see a whole host of artists looking to the future – some with hope, some with imagination and some with concern. We never impose themes on the artists we work with, but it’s striking how this year’s programme reflects our complicated times in often surprisingly joyous and unexpected ways.

“Featuring artists from more than 20 countries, the Festival also has strong local roots, with several commissions featuring the people of Manchester as participants. MIF19 will be a feast of energy, which I hope will inspire debate and delight for the festival’s 18 days and far beyond.”

With MIF set to operate and create the artistic programme for The Factory, the landmark cultural space being developed in the city, several MIF19 works are presented as preFactory events, offering a preview of the range and calibre of work planned.

This includes, Laurie Anderson’s To The Moon, an expanded virtual reality work she is developing with the artist Hsin-Chien Huang, featuring a VR experience and an immersive installation.

Sir Mark Elder, Musical Director of the Hallé, and Johan Simons, the acclaimed Dutch theatre director, are also developing a new work for The Factory, inspired by composer Dimitri Shostakovich and the writer Vasily Grossman. They will be discussing this new work before a performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Leningrad.

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, says: “Since its early beginnings in 2005 MIF has attracted thousands of visitors from around the world that bring with them a huge economic boost to the city. The Festival is unrivalled in terms of the calibre of internationally renowned artists, musicians and performers that take part, whilst also inspiring local people themselves to get involved. “These are exciting times for culture in Manchester. As we look ahead to the opening of the city’s landmark new cultural venue The Factory in a couple of years’ times, MIF19 is once again set to place Manchester centre-stage and showcase it as the vibrant centre of innovation, culture, and creativity that it undoubtedly is.”

MIF19 runs in Manchester from 4-21 July 2019. For details of the full line-up visit MIF.co.uk

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