You can watch the full performance of Great North Star here.

That's the end of our live coverage of Great North Star, which marks the start of the closing weekend of the Great Exhibition of the North. Thank you for joining us.

The exhibition doesn't end until Monday so there are still events to do and see. You can find more information here., external

If you didn't have the chance to watch our live stream of the performance tonight, check back here over the weekend to watch it again. You can also watch it on BBC One tomorrow from 15:15 after the coverage of the Great North City Games.

Ian Youngs
Entertainment and Arts Reporter, BBC News

The name of The Great Exhibition of the North deliberately harked back to the grand celebrations of art and industry that drew millions of people from all corners of the country in the 19th and 20th Centuries (The North East Coast Exhibition of 1929 pictured below).

This one was meant to appeal to a sense of northern pride, and organisers have said 1.3 million people cited it as their main reason for visiting the region this summer. If that’s true, then great.

But from the outside, it hasn’t felt like an unmissable extravaganza to rank among its predecessors. Beyond Newcastle and Gateshead, the awareness and the buzz about The Great Exhibition of the North have been negligible.

When then Chancellor George Osborne announced a Great Exhibition of the North as part of his Northern Powerhouse package in the 2015 Autumn Statement, it came out of the blue.

It felt like it had been dreamed it up as one extra token measure to throw into the package. And at the end of the day, like the Northern Powerhouse, the Great Exhibition seems to have fizzled out.

Lots of people have had a good time, some artists have forged new ideas and collaborations, and at the end of the day having a £5m festival is better than not having one.

Will there be another one? Maybe in a century or two.

Image source, TYNE AND WEAR ARCHIVES

Zena Francis
BBC North East

And that’s a wrap! The Great North Star has ended to rapturous applause from the audience only dulled by the effect of the weather on their fingers.

Still dancing in their seats young and old have clearly enjoyed the show.

Although not as packed as first advertised the smiling faces leaving the venue are a sure sign of some positive feedback for the organisers of the performance.

The show championed the North and the women that helped put it on the map and I certainly leave the event feeling even more proud of where I live.

Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh was one of the perfomers tonight - here she is with Ibinabo Jack, one of the singers, and Jam’Sy Makuna Masengo, who was the young runner in the performance.

Zena Francis
BBC North East

The audience are whooping and cheering as the stage clears of performers and Grace Davies sings her new track.

The Millennium Bridge lit up in green and purple to celebrate the work done by northern women from the past.

As the crowds mill out of the stands with smiles on their faces I’m sure the organisers are hoping that this performance will inspire the northern women of the future some of whom will have been in the audience tonight.

“When women run they are fearless” - Kathrine Switzer.

Act Four of Great North Star celebrates the prowess of female athletes.

Zena Francis
BBC North East

“Women can run” - the audience perhaps buoyed by the performance to One Last Time are growing increasingly more vocal as star athletes take to the stage.

The biggest cheer went to Boston Marathon legend Kathrine Switzer.

Ahead of this weekends Great North Run she provides some inspiration for those taking part saying “when women run, they feel fearless”.

Zena Francis
BBC North East

The North’s industrial past and the women who contributed to it are celebrated.

It serves as a reminder of the work women did during the war and after it.

The show isn’t vague in its stance on equality as the Narrator says “there is more work to be done”.

Songs for the younger ones in the audience by Little Mix and Ariana Grande are performed by Rise Unbroken.

Ariana Grande’s One Last time, made famous for being an anthem after the Manchester Arena attack, was chosen to celebrate the North’s “tradition of togetherness and mutual support”.

There are cheers from the audience after the performance to Ariana Grande’s song

Zena Francis
BBC North East

“All work is women’s work” - The North’s tradition of industry and manufacturing and the women that contributed to it being highlighted on stage outside of The Baltic.

Julie Hesmondhalgh (pictured bottom) is the narrator for Act Three.

Zena Francis
BBC North East

Despite the chilly temperature on the Quayside tonight Act Two heats up the audience celebrating the “radical sisters” of the Suffragettes.

Famous suffragette Emily Wilding Davison's story is told to table of angry men.

The slogan 'deeds not words' shown on the circular screen behind the stage highlights the action taken by Davison and others.

I’m sure the audience can feel the anger and emotion felt by women of the time as the narrator tells women to “rise up”

Soprano Lesley Garrett performs the first of this evening's musical performances singing Blow the Wind Southerly to mark the end of the first act of Great North Star.

Zena Francis
BBC North East

The crowd fell silent as Charlie Hardwick (pictured below right) took on her narration role in Act One of the Great North Star.

"Fairness, fortitude and fight" were the words used to describe northern women.

Inspirational women are being projected on to a large screen behind the stage (Ann Lister at the bottom) as Hardwick explains their accomplishments to a young teenage girl.

The River Tyne glistening behind the stage provides the perfect backdrop for a performance centred around stars.

Tonight's Great North Star has started - click on the link at the top of this page to watch it live.

The backbone of tonight's Great North Star performance is the dozens of female volunteers who take the role of suffragettes, workers and volunteers.

Among them are Karen and Lauren Bain (pictured below), who took part in the event marking the Great North Run's millionth runner ceremony in 2014, which they said was "an amazing experience".

They said: "We wanted to come back and get the same atmosphere and the people are just so lovely."

Pam Carefull (pictured below) is another volunteer, who said: "They were telling the story of some inspirational northern women and it makes me really proud to be both northern and a woman.

"They fought so hard for the rights and freedoms that we enjoy that it was really quite emotional to be part of it."