Rise: Electric opening night for Bradford 2025 as City of Culture

This weekend marked the start of the district's year as City of Culture, shining a global spotlight on its vibrancy and arts.

The opening event was electric, energetic, youthful and true. A massive burst of colour in incredible hues. As the eyes of the world turned to Bradford, lit up in golden green, a spirit of creativity came piercing through.

To creative director Shanaz Gulzar, this is Bradford's time to shine.

"The excitement is palpable," she said. "It's a frisson. It feels a tangible thing. People always ask what I'm most excited about. Actually - it's this moment. "It's just magical," she added. "It's something special."

Friday night brought RISE to the city centre, created by Steven Frayne, also known as Dynamo, with director Kirsty Housley. Aerial acrobatics, performances and magic. Saturday’s event is a sell out and we can’t give too much away.

With a bitter wintry blast bringing the biggest freeze in years, there had been a moment of fear. But this was Yorkshire. We "put on our big coats", said Ms Gulzar. People started shovelling snow. A stranger stopped her in a coffee shop queue, to whisper 'good luck'.

It's about storytelling, she said. It's about audiences. It's about every single person who has worked so hard.

"I'm so proud," she said. "I can't believe we've got to this point".

Launch day had dawned crystal clear, following the coldest night in 15 years. And against the brightest of cold blue skies, Bradford glistened in icy white. The city centre was spotless. Paths cleared, shops bright in frosted frames. The town hall, in golden lights, magnificent and imposing.

It must have been frantic behind the scenes, in the build up and with the big freeze, but the crowds would never know. As they gathered in the city square, the feeling was of exhilaration.

Spotlights swept over the waiting thousands, alive with anticipation. Then a piercing cry as one Yorkshire voice rose above all others in a haunting call to Bradford's "bricks and mills and terraces".

It was electric. In boxes there were dancers. Aerial acrobats, sweeping up into the night. It took a 200-strong cast of poets and rappers, and a community choir, with the Airedale Symphony Orchestra perched high above in an overlooking building.

There was poetry and prose, a gritty cobbled portrait. And a defiant cry of Northern pride.

"I'm proud of my roots, I'm proud of my accent," cried one performer, paying an honest homage to a city that hasn't always been celebrated. "I just want to see Bradford Rise."

There was a mix of faces; old and young, of all races and religions. This is the UK's youngest city and that vitality boomed at the centre of everything. Vibrant and energetic, Bradford's beat swept over celebrations, to be echoed again.

"It takes spirit, it takes grit... You know it takes a village," performers cried. "Now nothing will ever be the same."

TV magician Frayne, taking the stage, told crowds how proud he was to come from the city. He had started his career doing street magic, he said, right where they were standing.

"All of my random ideas started right here in Bradford," he said. "If I can do what I have done, we can do anything. This year is going to be amazing.”

Bradford is the fourth UK City of Culture, following Derry-Londonderry in 2013, Hull in 2017 and Coventry in 2021. It was selected in May 2022 from a field of 20 bidding towns and cities.

To the Gutch family, Jamie, Juliet, Esme and Xanthe from Ilkley, the opening night was amazing. Cold, but "brilliantly organised".

"There was an incredible sense of history and energy," they said. "It was really moving. You could feel the buzz."

And family friend Usman, 19, a youth panel member, added: "It brought me to tears. It's so nice to finally see something this big in Bradford - where we actually celebrate Bradford."

City of Culture is to see a year of celebrations. The opening event, with outdoor theatrics. Then for each month a packed programme spreading from the city to towns and villages.

Launch day began with a whistle-stop tour of some of Yorkshire's cultural highlights. Cramming incredible art and mill history and global exhibitions into just a few short hours.

Salts Mill, a gleaming beacon of calm, with its lofty halls and glad sense of sanctuary. Here, in the rooftops, a vast space awaits, soon to be transformed for Ann Hamilton's largest solo installation to date. We Will Sing, formed from the district’s textile heritage, opens in May.

On the floor below social documentary photographer Ian Beesley's images still fill the walls, extraordinarily striking to capture a whole world of industrial decline. Then the Peace Museum, seeing a sudden renewal in interest as it builds a new home.

At Impressions Gallery Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh, with her bold and breathtaking exhibition Nationhood: Memory and Hope now open, said humanity was at its heart.

Too often, she said, society is split by division. What art can bring - what City of Culture can bring - is a bridge for unity and healing.

"Artists are the most feared, as we break so many boundaries," she added. "Arts, culture, creativity - these are the things that bring us together."

And at the National Science and Media Museum, reopening just in time following a £6m transformation, a sneak peek at something special.

Bradford-born artist David Hockney is world class. Pieced Together, which opens on Wednesday, shares his experiments with picture making and with pieces unseen in public for decades. He crafts collages from photographs and video in mesmerising displays.

All is made possible under Bradford2025. Jo Quinton-Tulloch, museum director, said it was "thrilling" to be back for such an uplifting moment in the district's history.

"There's such an air of excitement," she said. "Already I'm feeling proud of Bradford. I know how much work has gone on behind the scenes. It's happening now - it's live.

"Come and see what Bradford has to offer. I think you'll be surprised."

Darren Henley, the chief executive of Arts Council England, said the focus on Bradford is now to stretch around the world.

This is a city that has "everything going for it," he said. "It’s going to be an amazing year of creativity, artistic events and brilliance that we’ve got coming up. It’s so exciting.”

He added: “For the people who live here and work here and study here, it changes the story they tell about their place. But, also, the story that those of us that come and visit that place tell about that place.

“It’s all about stories. It’s all about possibility and it’s all about creativity.”

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