The xx residency at Manchester International Festival

The xx are to have an intimate residency at Manchester International Festival, playing for fewer than 100 people at a time.

The 2010 Mercury Prize winners will play a string of gigs in a secret "enigmatic found space" during the 18-day festival which also has concerts premiered during the event by established and emerging international musicians and runs from Thursday 4th until Sunday 21st July 2013.

Actor Kenneth Branagh has also been announced and will perform and direct Macbeth, in a new production by Emmy and Tony award-winning director Rob Ashford, for the first time in his career in a de-consecrated church in the city.

Manchester International Festival will also include The Biospheric Project an examination into how to create sustainable food supplies for an age of rising populations and growing urbanisation. An old industrial building in Salford will be converted to be part farm, part laboratory, and part research centre filled with experiments in sustainable food, technology and design.

Alex Poots, Festival Director said, "We continue to make ambitious and engaged work with some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers, while taking the festival - and our audiences - in new, unexpected and challenging directions."

The Manchester International Festival takes place at venues all over the city and draws on the city's role in music, with the programme usually focusing particularly on new music. The festival also has concerts premiered during the event by established and emerging international musicians.

The full programme for next year's festival will be announced in February. Tickets for The xx go on sale in January.

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