Reflections of a rainy day in Manchester. (reflections on a rainy day in manchester. a.jpg by joseph_mcgarraghy)

Sunday afternoon seemed a good time to drop in on the Manchester International Festival, to see if anything was happening that might interest people who don’t necessarily read The Guardian.

All was quiet. The cheerful, friendly, and very helpful volunteers were giving out guide books in the main Manchester Central building (until recently Greater Manchester Exhibition and Event Centre, known as G-Mex), formerly Manchester Central Railway Station. You can see and hear the volunteers welcoming visitors on my first video clip.

The most interesting attraction to happen in the time that I was there was the performance of ‘Compost Mentis’, by local street theatre group: The Whalley Range All Stars. This was enjoyed by many children and adults, brightening their day. You can see some of this on my video clips and in the last clip of the set you will also hear a young man asking me to stop taking photographs. I continued filming while asking his reasons …. The All Stars have no objections to my photography because they have been filmed all over the world.

So, I set off for home, feeling rather downhearted, and was delighted to come across more of the interesting and very clever stilt-walkers that Manchester Council has arranged along side, but not part of, the Festival. This time they were large butterflies and with such large wings they must have had a hard time in the rain. They added to the colours of the Garden Market in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Albert Square and gave entertainment for normal people and children, making Manchester a more welcoming place to be.

Someone had even put a luminous cross and chain around the neck of Prince Albert!

Photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/asisawit/sets/72157600922086018/

Video clips: http://josephmcg.blogspot.com/