Hull Blog ~ City-Visitor » Hull Freedom Festival

Hull City of Culture

Sandy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:09 +0000

So my scepticism shone through when I wrote back in December about Hull being a City of Culture… and it seems everyone was right in their belief that it would never happen.

We’ve been knocked out of the race, with the four cities still in the running for the UK’s first City of Culture 2013 being Birmingham, Derry/Londonderry, Norwich and Sheffield.

The sense of disappointment is still there, but we have been faithfully reassured by the team behind the bid that Hull is going from strength to strength.

According to Hull City Council, we just have to remember the ‘feel good’ factor resulting from events like Hull’s Freedom Festival and Beverley’s literature festival, and that “whether we win or not, this process will give us a focus for culture for the area for the next five years and will help us to attract more funding for cultural activity.”

Plus there’s always the 2017 bid…

Hull Freedom Festival and the City of Freedom

Sandy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:10:24 +0000

We are, apparently, the UK’s City of Freedom. A made-up term if ever I heard one, but the sentiment is there.

It all links, of course, to Hull’s most famous son – William Wilberforce – and we’re celebrating the 250^th anniversary of his birth this year as part of the Freedom Festival.

In case you missed last year’s, the festival is planned for 11^th – 13^th September 2009 and we’re being promised that the city will be awash with activity and entertainment throughout the weekend; a Jazz Festival in the Marina, The Proms in Queen Victoria Square and live bands performing in Queen’s Gardens.

This year’s Freedom Festival will also incorporate the start of the Clipper 2009-10 Round the World Yacht Race, so we really are celebrating and pushing the boat out.

All in all, looks like a good weekend is brewing. You can keep an eye out on the latest news for announcements of times, performers and venues here