Four star review of Leeds 2023 opening ceremony The Awakening

The opening ceremony last Saturday to launch Leeds 2023, the city’s forthcoming year of culture, was a wonderful, uplifting spectacle at a packed Headingley Stadium. The event, co-directed by Slung Low’s Alan Lane and Leeds 2023 creative director Kully Thiarai, absolutely put the spirit of Leeds front and centre and the crowds who had gathered – on the ground and in the stands – responded fervently, despite the wet weather.

Co-hosts Leeds 2023 chair Gabby Logan and BBC Radio Leeds presenter Sanchez Payne led the audience through a programme that featured music, dance, spoken word, intercut by a series of short films about Leeds residents and their creative and sporting passions. Each of the audience members had submitted a piece of artwork in return for a ticket, so the whole night was a celebration of the thousands of artists present.

A personal highlight of the event’s many memorable moments was the Opera North chorus angelically singing some of the more sweary choruses of Tub Thumpin’ as they provided backing vocals for Chumbawamba’s Dunstan Bruce singing the band’s most famous song that contains the rousing line ‘we get knocked down, but we get up again.’ There was a brilliant new poem from poet laureate Simon Armitage about artistic expression in the city (“wake up Leeds, you’ve got gold in your veins”), while spoken word artists Testament, Graft and Denmarc Creary all put their own energetic, imaginative spin on what makes Leeds tick.

A hundred dancers from Leeds Carnival performed, as did a group of dancers on wheels – roller blades, bicycles, wheelchairs. CBeebies presenter George Webster gave a moving and inspiring speech in an entertaining double-act with his dad and Leeds’ youngest rock stars The Solar Jets, all 10 years old, performed a terrific version of the Kaiser Chiefs’ I Predict a Riot. Perhaps the biggest response from the crowd was to Opera North tenor Mykhailo Malafii’s stupendous rendition of Nessun Dorma which deservedly received a huge ovation. The 90-minute show culminated in a short set from Leeds-born singer Corinne Bailey Rae which was interrupted by a Look North news report about a strange occurrence in the River Aire. Cut to ‘footage’ of a giant emerging from the water – Leeds sleeping giant had awakened and that was the cue for a breath-taking light show and pyrotechnical finale. A fantastic start to what promises to be an exciting 12 months of cultural activity.