The Factory: Audiences Get First Glimpse In £186m Manchester Arts Venue

A £186m arts venue that is being built in Manchester has given the public the first chance to look inside.

The Factory is £76m over budget and is not due to open properly until 2022, three years behind schedule.

Although it is still a building site, audiences were allowed in for one weekend to see a special installation featuring dozens of glowing tents.

The Manchester International Festival will run The Factory and promises that it will “redraw the UK’s cultural map”.

The 7,000-capacity Factory will provide a permanent home for the festival, whose bosses promise that it will attract 850,000 people a year to the city and bring in £1.1bn to the economy over a decade.

The festival also claims it will “transform Manchester’s cultural output and standing” and “spearhead the recovery of the nation’s cultural sector, devastated by the pandemic.

The Factory was conceived in 2014 when then-Chancellor George Osborne pledged £78m as a cultural contribution to the Northern Powerhouse.

But the building has been beset by delays and rising budgets, with a number of changes to its design, and will have to prove its worth.

When it does fully open late next year, The Factory will host theatre, music, opera and exhibitions from major national and international names.