The Blitz Festival Manchester July 2002

The Blitz Festival took place in Manchester 2002, as Manchester played host to the Commonwealth Games.

It was an explosive mix of international grassroots underground culture, in the form of two huge exhibitions, street theatre, outdoor music, film nights and presentations.

Press:

Indymedia Report
Original Press Release

AgiTATE Art Exhibition
Brazenly located in the middle of a budding shopping mall "Great Northern", this exhibition in the heart of Manchester took over unused warehouse space and transformed it into the most beautifully presented and ideologically challenging collection of art work Manchester has seen. A curating team led by UHC, kept it all sailing the thin line between propaganda and art, enough to attract the most action-orientated activists and impress the least thoughtful critic on their way to the Virgin gym. Starting from the premise that the third world war will be fought in our heads, through images, television and on the airwaves, the exhibition housed work from local graffiti artists to a "live sound installation" (pirate radio station). Over 4000 people visited in a week.

Simultaneously, 'The Body Politic', an international radical feminist art exhbit, curated by Angel, ran the whole week in the Green Room.

Music and Film
Live outdoor music took over Great Northern Square, in Manchester's monied heartland. mixing local underground acts with internationally reknowned bands. Blitz went on to 4 interactive & film events, hosted by BEyONdTV and i-contact, including the packed-out slideshow presentation by Seth Tobocman of his lifes work.

March for Capitalism?

This was NATOs first dramatic street theatre meme-fest which took place as the Blitz Festival and Commonwealth Games were coming to an end.
Saturday shoppers and tourists reacted interestingly to the placards " Bomb Other Countries", "The environment can kiss my ass" and others. Some people boo-ed because they saw through our heavy irony, others because they didn't, some joined in because they were drunk, and others were genuinely bemused- with many mutterings of "Bombs not Bread?" to be heard. The three-headed monster was escorted out of town by the police, despite the fact that he encouraged shoppers to buy more and praised the Officers' commitment to the public good. Meanwhile the rest of the crowd went off with performance collective 'FanClub' to monopolise the queue at WHSmiths with monopoly boards.

Spoof Tourist Guide
An alternative guide to the city appeared for the Games, an exact replica of the Council tourist guide, it gave the other side to the city council spin and directed people to the Blitz events.

It laid out some of the less media-worthy details around the Games, such asthe costly last minute makeovers, cuts in leisure services in under-resourced communities to finance the new sports facilities and a critique of neo-liberalism as a whole.