Can you believe its been two years since the last Manchester International Festival? Well it’s back for another sell-out month of events across dance, music, drama and art across from of Manchester’s best-known and recently rediscovered venues.

Some events, such as the adaptation of Macbeth starring Kenneth Branagh have hit the headlines – and have sold out well in advance. But there are still lots of events to soak up. Here’s our pick of the best:

Theatre

Matt Charman’s The Machine (10 – 21 July, Campfield Market Hall) captures one of modern history’s thrilling battles with a dramatisation of the defining game of our generation – between chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov and super-computer Deep Blue. Maxine Peake leads in a dramatic reinterpretation of Shelley’s 1819 polemic about the Peterloo Massacre, The Masque of Anarchy (12-14 July, Albert Hall). Staged close to the site of the actual massacre in the atmospheric Albert Hall it looks…