Hull, City of Culture: Larkin about as boat comes in for a port of poetry and drama

Philip Larkin’s famous lines sums up the city’s ambitions for 2017.

Four years away, the programme is already fit too bursting, 15 national and international commissions, 12 artists residencies, 25 festivals, 1,500 special events and eight major community participation projects as well a programming of conferences and major broadcasting events – every day, one to remember.

The main events have been roughly drafted – Hull-born film producer Tracey Seaward will produce the spectacular opening event, where four “rivers” of light, people and sound, made up of 3,000 volunteers will flow into the city.

During the event elephants will tread the streets alongside “lost” trawlermen and dancing white phone boxes. Ms Seaward produced the extraordinary Summer Olympics opening ceremony last year.

In September the annual Freedom Festival, which has won plaudits for its quirky inventiveness, will see its biggest show yet.

Director of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games closing ceremony Mark Murphy and outdoor arts company Walk The Plank will use “breathtaking aerial choreography, an evocative live music score and jaw-dropping fireworks” to tell the world Hull’s story using the city’s tidal barrier as a backdrop.

It will be themed round Larkin’s famous line:

What will survive of us is love.

Mr Murphy, who directed the Liverpool European Capital of Culture opening show, said yesterday: “I’m thrilled for Hull, I got a good feeling when I went there.

“Just meeting the prospective people I would work with there was a very open and honest feeling for wanting to do something really special.”

The event will not be parachuted onto the city – around 90 per cent of the cast will be local.

He said: “We will populate the show with a backbone of local performers from all over the world, performers, technicians, artists and lighting designers, who I work with regularly and are like a family that comes together for a big event. The tidal barrier is such a big and impressive piece of unusual architecture, a natural frame which we can put performers onto and have aerialists hanging from.”

Another major event towards the end of 2017 either at the KC Stadium or East Park will highlight Hull’s history of magic and producing magicians in a digital sound and light spectacular involving 500 dancers and choreographed by award-winning lighting designer Durham Marenghi.

Andrew Pearson, of Hull-based theatre company Ensemble 52, who came up with the idea, said: “I wanted to involve Durham because he is the pre-eminent lighting designer in the world and he lives in Kirk Ella, near Hull.

“The idea was about creating something about music, movement and magic. Hull has a strong history of magic and producing magicians like Alan Hudson and Jon Marshall.

“The idea was to stream it and use technology so you could have a lot of magicians working – everyone knows how impressive it is to have bang, bang, bang, lots of different illusions.”

Hull University PhD student David Gawthorpe is hoping to get a platform following yesterday’s “incredible” announcement. He has a number of ideas including Playing The Humber Bridge a piece of music written for and played at the iconic landmark.

Another involves Aeolian harps/wind sculptures along the Humber estuary in a project involving the university’s music and engineering department.

Mr Gawthorpe, from the city’s Bransholme estate, said: “It is really going to change the dynamic of the city in a lot of ways. It has been neglected in many ways.

“I think this is going to light the touchpaper – there is a lot of energy which needs to be unleashed.”