Ai Weiwei, Lily Allen and Tricky lead Factory International’s spring 2026 season

Factory International has unveiled a spring 2026 season of new work that includes a UK premiere and three world premieres.

Among the highlights are the first major exhibition in the North by Ai Weiwei, an intimate headline show from Lily Allen, a new live performance from Tricky and the UK opera debut of director Kip Williams.

The organisation, which runs Manchester International Festival (MIF) and the Aviva Studios venue, will stage large-scale new productions across theatre, dance, music and visual art, making use of the flexibility of its purpose-built home.

Tickets go on sale to members on Tuesday 20 January, with general sale from Tuesday 27 January. Prices start at £10 for every show.

Exhibition, dance and opera

Ai Weiwei: Button Up! (2 July to 6 September) examines 200 years of turbulent world history, taking in history, power and empire. It centres on two new works commissioned specially for the venue, one of which will be the artist’s largest 2D work to date, made from more than a million toy bricks.

The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor (25 to 27 June) is a world premiere created by Sonya Tayeh, a choreographer and director who has won a Tony award. Performed by a company of 10 women to O’Connor’s music, it explores voice, protest and the courage to live outside the norm. It is presented by Joyce Theater and Factory International.

Return to the Forest (7 to 10 May), a family show combining dance and puppetry from Theatre-Rites and South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma, also gets its world premiere. Factory International is co-producer, and Sadlers Wells East is a co-commissioner.

Kip Williams directs the UK premiere of Angel’s Bone (12 to 16 May), Du Yun’s opera, which won a Pulitzer Prize, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Staged by English National Opera (ENO) and Factory International with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, it is the opening production in a new series and an allegory about power, exploitation and what survival costs people.

Music

Aviva Studios, which has quickly built a reputation as a music venue known for its acoustics, will host experimental electronic and indie acts as well as major pop names and DJs this spring.

The line-up includes Halsey marking ten years of BADLANDS (29 January), Lily Allen performing her No.1 album West End Girl in full (10 to 11 March), Fatboy Slim (13 to 14 March), Kesha (13 to 14 March), Thundercat (27 March), Basement Jaxx (28 March), Tricky, co-founder of Massive Attack (16 May), and Pixies (24 to 25 May).

John McGrath, artistic director and chief executive of Factory International, said: “This season we have a collection of firsts. We’re proud to have Ai Weiwei’s first major exhibition in the North of England, ENO’s first production staged in Manchester and the first major production celebrating the music and life of Sinéad O’Connor.

“Factory International is collaborating with pioneering, fearless artists this Spring inviting them to use the flexibility and versatility of our extraordinary home Aviva Studios, as their playground to create work they could not make anywhere else. We welcome them to Manchester to push the boundaries of their practice and create at unprecedented scales imagining spectacles both intimate and ambitious for our audiences in the North and beyond.”

Artist development

Factory International, one of the UK’s largest cultural exporters, makes and commissions work in the North that reaches audiences worldwide. It also supports artists at all career stages, including free industry training through Factory Academy.

Its artist development schemes, Factory Fellowship, Factory Sounds, Young Curators and Artist Takeover, return this spring, offering funding, mentoring, space and training to help artists overcome barriers to resources.

Six Young Curators from Manchester, all aged 30 or under, will work with artist Trackie McLeod on UTOPIA, a working pub in the Aviva Studios Warehouse that will also serve as an exhibition, drag bar, small music venue and workshop space from 19 to 21 February.

Also in February, the fifth Artist Takeover will give dancer and choreographer Chad Taylor financial and production support to experiment with projection mapping at Aviva Studios for a week.

Also returning is the talk series Artists In Times of Upheaval, which looks at new projects and discussions arising from artists’ responses to global and national upheaval. Next up is a reading of Resisters, a play being developed by writer and performer Mojisola Adebayo that explores, through art, how queer people and women have resisted occupation, war and genocide.