More than 700,000 visitors visited Manchester's £240m Aviva Studio in its first 12 months (which arrived on October 18).
Years behind schedule and now facing day-to-day running cost problems, the venue has nonetheless been declared one of the world's 100 best places to visit by TIME Magazine.
Nearly two thirds of the complex's first-year audiences came from Greater Manchester - and four out of five of the remaining third specifically visited Manchester to visit the venue. More than 13,000 Greater Manchester residents have taken part in studios events since the opening
The success of the venue's training schemes has been recognised nationally: the Factory Academy was named "training Initiative of the year" and "large employer of the year" at the 2024 British Training Awards. (See on Wednesday for forthcoming training opportunities, some now open for applications).
Factory International has worked with over 25,000 children and young people through family-friendly events and activities at Aviva Studios, including free workshops, relationships with early-years centres, schools, colleges, youth zones and community groups.
Aviva Studios has also been welcomed as a major addition to the city’s music scene, and this year saw the launch of Factory+, an online platform for digital content, artworks, games and more.
Looking ahead, the 2025 season features Hamlet Hail to the Thief, which will see Shakespeare’s words illuminated by Radiohead’s seminal album Hail to the Thief, re-worked by Thom Yorke (April 27-May 18); the world premiere of Figures in Extinction (February 18-22), the final instalment of Simon McBurney and Crystal Pite’s award-winning dance trilogy presented by Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) and Complicite; the return of the Manchester International Festival (July 3-20) and the world premiere of a large-scale performance by renowned artist Marina Abramovic (autumn 2025).
More info here