MMU float at Manchester International Festival

TENS of thousands will line the city’s streets this weekend for the Manchester International Festival’s carnival parade.

Procession is being put together by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller who has been commissioned to showcase the city, its history, traditions and characters.

Amid mill workers, schoolchildren and ‘Madchester’ characters is a float made almost entirely by students from Manchester Metropolitan University, built with love and just a little tomato ketchup!

Undergraduates on the Three-Dimensional Design degree have constructed a lifelike replica of a well-known Bury café, Valerie’s, complete with staff, customers, and a few imperfections!

Home from home

“We’ve used new materials but made it look aged with nicotine stains, tea-stains and all the greasy trimmings,” said Tom Mills, a second-year undergraduate, who specialises in furniture making.

“It’s a great experience being involved with MIF which is now such a massive arts festival.”

Tom along with Colin Merrell, Steve Rimmer and John Driskel have spent a month making the float, under guidance from Deller and his associates.

“They provide the designs, and we have to build them. There’s a degree of artistic licence but its obviously not as intense as the creative process involved in the degree,” added Tom, who says the quartet are chuffed to get MIF onto their CVs.

Surreal

The festival procession described by Deller as ‘northern social surrealism’ takes place in Manchester’s Deansgate on Sunday July 5 from 2-3pm.

In a separate connection, MMU’s North West Film Archive has been selecting footage of processions from the past - Rose Queens, carnivals, pageants and
Whit Walks - as part of Procession: An Exhibition which will open at Cornerhouse on 9th July.

There is also a Procession Online website featuring participants, and more archive footage from NWFA and members of the public at www.manchesterprocession.com.