A free-to-attend event will see Hull’s historic streets light-up with giant figures and world class installations, as the city’s newest arts festival celebrates the changing seasons and its maritime heritage.
After a successful launch last year, The Awakening returns to the city centre for one weekend only, promising something “magical, beautiful, and very playful”.
Along with marking the end of winter and beginning of spring, the installations and performances – both indoors and out – will explore Hull’s maritime identity, folklore and mythology.
Being staged during the evenings of Friday 17 and Saturday 18 March, with an additional ticketed performance on Sunday 19 March, the event will feature national and international artists alongside some of Hull’s finest homegrown talent.
Among highlights will be three “giant” rabbits appearing at the Rose Bowl in the city; creative robotics in Zebedees Yard; a “beautifully-lit” Queens Gardens filled with flowers and fauna; and interactive light games in Trinity Square.
The rabbits are part of an internationally exhibited installation light artwork Intrude by Australian artist Amanda Parer, while the robotics installation, called UNFURL – which reacts to the people around it – is by Bristol-based Air Giants
Elsewhere, Liverpool-based Lantern Company, known for their vast sculptures constructed from lanterns, will transform Queens Gardens in what will be the last major event the space will host before its renovation to become a key route of the Hull Maritime project.
There will also be a wider programme of music with a special edition of Trinity Live in partnership with Trinity Market and Sesh Events; music and film at Ferens Art Gallery; and a special folk gig from Hack-Poets Guild at Social in Humber Street.
Delivered by Freedom Festival Arts Trust and Hull City Council, the event is supported by the Shared Prosperity Fund, HM Government Levelling Up Fund, Hull Maritime and the Heritage Action Zone.
The full schedule and guide for The Awakening will be available both online and in print in late February.
For more details about the project see www.theawakeninghull.co.uk.
For all other tourism information about Hull, see www.visithull.org.
Photo credit: Malachy Luckie for UNFURL