Hull’s city of culture bid steps up another gear

IF only winning the competition to win the 2017 City of Culture title was as easy as riding a bike.
Bid Documents are delivered by bike to offices in Manchester today by Hull actor Matt Sutton and Karen Okra of Black History Partnership and the Freedom Festival Board.
 Picture: Sean Spencer/Hull News & PicturesBid Documents are delivered by bike to offices in Manchester today by Hull actor Matt Sutton and Karen Okra of Black History Partnership and the Freedom Festival Board.
 Picture: Sean Spencer/Hull News & Pictures
Bid Documents are delivered by bike to offices in Manchester today by Hull actor Matt Sutton and Karen Okra of Black History Partnership and the Freedom Festival Board. Picture: Sean Spencer/Hull News & Pictures

Two representatives from Hull’s arts scene - actor Matt Sutton and Karen Okra, who sits on the city’s Freedom Festival board - hopped on specially-decorated cycles to drop off the city’s bid to consultants in Manchester yesterday.

The 168-page document, carried in a suitcase announcing “Made In Hull”, sets out a £11m programme and a rationale that organisers hope will wow judges and set them ahead of rivals Dundee, Swansea Bay and Leicester.

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There’s a lot riding on the decision - which will be made by a panel headed by TV producer and screenwriter Phil Redmond and announced in November - with estimates it could garner the city £184m extra tourism spend between 2015 and 2020.

The city, which has some of the highest numbers of cyclists in the country, is planning a carnival of pedal power, reminiscent of the London Olympics opening ceremony, featuring “human-powered sculptures” before next July’s Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Leeds.

And it wants to continue the cycle theme in a spectacular opening event - featuring four rivers flowing into the city. Locals will be encouraged to get involved by taking part on bikes they have painted themselves, along with theatrical elephants and dancing white phone boxes.

If the bid succeeds, organisers are also promising an unmissable outdoor event framed by the city’s tidal barrier, using live music, “breath-taking aerial choreography” and fireworks based on Philip Larkin - who for many years was the librarian at Hull University - and one of his immortal lines: “What will survive of us is love.”

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Coun Steve Bayes said locals had seen the success of the city’s annual Freedom Festival and backed the 2017 bid. He said: “People talk about the city centre needing more people, more tourists - this is a way of getting more people into the city.”

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