Throughout MIF17, Blue Badge guide Jonathan Schofield led a series of walking tours from Festival Square, three of them themed around MIF17 commissions.

The Radical City
Inspired by Ceremony
A Parliamentary stronghold during the English Civil War and the first town to send an anti-slavery petition to Parliament, Manchester has hosted the first gatherings of organisations as varied as the Vegetarian Society, the Anti-Corn Law League and the Trades Union Congress (TUC); served as the birthplace of the Suffragette movement; and was home for 20 years to Friedrich Engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto. This tour explored the rich history of Manchester as a cradle of radical action.

The Guardian Tour: Media, Manchester and Culture
A rollercoaster tour through grand interiors and fine streetscapes that revealed how the power of the word has shaped Manchester and the country beyond. This tour took in the very first edition of The Manchester Guardian, the sites of speeches that changed the nation, and the prose and poetry from the varied likes of Thomas de Quincey, Elizabeth Gaskell, Anthony Burgess, John Cooper Clarke, Morrissey and Carol Ann Duffy.

Identity and the Fabric of the City
Inspired by What Is the City but the People?
A general tour of the city past, present and future that asked a simple question: what creates a city’s identity? Sometimes humorous and sometimes dark, this stirring story looked at how the rise and fall of textiles has influenced politics, fashion and culture here from the 18th to the 21st centuries, and how it helped create for Mancunians a reputation for openness and liberalism that survives today.

Migration and the UK’s Most Amazing Street
Inspired by ToGather
Migration and the UK’s Most Amazing Street took in prime landmarks along Oxford Road, telling the story of how immigration boosted Manchester and the UK. The tour visited such spectacular interiors as the Central Library, the Principal Hotel and the Holy Name Church, while also passing mighty mills, huge warehouses, two universities and much else besides.