'Staggering' visitor numbers for culture city

9 January 2017

We Are Hull projections on the maritime museum — Image caption,
The light show told the story of Hull over almost 100 years

A "staggering" 342,000 people came to Hull to see its first week of City of Culture 2017 events, organisers said.

As part of the Made in Hull event large images were projected on buildings to tell the city's history over almost 100 years.

In Queen Victoria Square, three major buildings - the city hall, Ferens Art Gallery and the maritime museum - acted as large canvasses for the event.

The free, unticketed event ran every night from New Year's Day to 7 January.

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Martin Green, director of Hull 2017, said: "It was extraordinary - I'm so glad people like the work.

"The work will keep coming but it doesn't mean anything if it doesn't have an audience.

"When I walked into the square every evening and saw it packed with people you couldn't fail to be moved by it."

Volume of visitors

The last night of the attraction was attended by 103,000 people on Saturday, organisers said.

In 2015 the Office for National Statistics put the city's total population at 258,000.

Twitter/Hull2017

Saturday's volume of visitors caused some overcrowding on public transport and traffic congestion as people headed for the city centre.

The city's maritime past, the blitz it endured in World War Two and the heavy loss of life for Hull's trawlermen were all featured in a video projection which lasted about 10 minutes.

The city's sporting achievements and its other local heroes, including record-breaking aviator Amy Johnson, were also marked.

Getty Images

About 342,000 people attended Made in Hull, said organisers

Lights in Hull's Victoria Square including the city hall

Videos showing the history of Hull were projected on to the city's buildings

The Deep was also transformed by a giant animated projection

The Hull-born documentary filmmaker Sean McAllister was the event's creative director.

A spectacular display of fireworks launched the first day of the city's events.

Once Made in Hull finished its last projection at about 21:00 GMT on Saturday. Within hours an early-morning heavy-haulage operation started moving the city's latest attraction into place in Queen Victoria Square.