Kenneth Branagh and top indie band The xx are the first big headliners announced for next summer’s Manchester International Festival.
Branagh returns to Shakespeare after more than a decade, in Macbeth, while The xx play throughout the Festival for audiences of under 100.
Elsewhere The Biospheric Project sees a prototype urban farm created in a disused city centre mill on the River Irwell.
MIF13 is the fourth edition of the world’s only festival of original new work where previous highlights included Björk's ambitious three week Biophilia residency; director Robert Wilson's startling new piece for the stage, The Life and Death of Marina Abramović; Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and Chen Shi-Zheng's Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West; group art event Il Tempo del Postino featuring work by Matthew Barney, Tacita Dean and Olafur Eliasson; and Zaha Hadid Architects' new space for the music of J S Bach.
Many of the works made and premiered in Manchester went on to tour internationally.
The Branagh Macbeth is certain to be one of the hottest tickets around with just 17 performances, staged in a deconsecrated church.
The xx take over another “enigmatic found space” for specially staged shows.
Festival director Alex Poots says:“These wide-ranging events offer a glimpse at the breadth of the programme for the fourth Manchester International Festival. We continue to make ambitious and engaged work with some of the world’s greatest artists and thinkers, while taking the Festival—and our audiences—in new, unexpected and challenging directions.”