Manchester International Festival has unveiled the full details of its food, drink and music line up for the ever-popular Festival Square this summer.
Heading up the outdoor kitchens will be the likes of pizza pros Honest Crust, festival staples Heathcote&Co, and Mary Ellen McTague's Eat Well MCR.
Festival Square will also play host to dozens of free events, from live music to DJ sets, curated by some of the biggest names in the north west.
MIF21's full programme was released this week, with the world-famous arts festival debuting new work from Cillian Murphy as well as stationing hundreds of dancers on Deansgate and building a 42m Big Ben sculpture at Piccadilly Gardens.
Taking place over 18 days this July, the festival's beating heart will once again be its Festival Square site, which attracts thousands of visitors each day.
Due to the ongoing renovation work at the Town Hall, MIF will move its central hub over to Cathedral Gardens.
Here, Heathcote&Co will be praying for sunshine as they serve up affogatos, speciality coffees and ice cream floats.
Honest Crust, of Altrincham Market and Mackie Mayor fame, will again be slinging their famous wood-fired pizzas as well as summer salads.
Celebrated plant-based chef Dan Hope will make a return too, this time with new vegan offering Stellar, where he'll serve barbacoa sandwiches, falafel burgers and his famous Firebird Hope 'chicken' burgers.
Mary Ellen McTague of The Creameries is no stranger to MIF, having hosted an Alice In Wonderland-inspired banquet at the festival in 2019.
But this will be the first time she'll bring her social enterprise Eat Well MCR to the event, serving snacks and meals from its partners.
Eat Well MCR is a collective of chefs and restaurants from across Greater Manchester, who came together in the first lockdown to provide meals for vulnerable people, delivering nearly 40,000 meals.
They'll bring together Chorlton Cheese Shop, Beehive, Holy Grain, Plucky Pickle, Acorn Dairy and several of the Eat Well MCR chefs to provide even more food at Festival Square.
Mary Ellen said: "Manchester International Festival is the perfect platform to showcase our wonderful marketplace of suppliers - the chefs and restaurants in our amazing collective - so we can tell our story to the wider community, all whilst raising much needed funds to continue our support work."
Soundtracking the square will be a busy music programme across three stages.
Homoelectric, Dave Haslam, DJ Paulette, Jamz Supernova, Mr Scruff and BBC Music Introducing will all curate nights at MIF21.
Earlier in the evenings, with a slower pace, will be Records of Reflection, with tunes chosen by Afrodeutsche, Feel Good Club, Norman Jay and Lou Rhodes (Lamb), among others.
Up-and-coming talent has been chosen through MIF Sounds, which was created to help people in the city's music scene to keep creating during the tumultuous last year.
The chosen artists - including DJ collective All Hands On Deck; producer, DJ and co-owner of record label Swing Ting, Balraj Samrai; and rapper and vocalist OneDa - will take over the Square at various points across the festival.
Members of the public are invited to perform this summer too, with MIF seeking everything from steel bands to dance troupes to community choirs to apply to the Festival Square Open Call.
The new look Square will be designed by Hawkins\Brown Architects, with the covid-secure design to be revealed in due course.
