Freedom Festival 2014

5-7 September 2014

www.freedomfestival.co.uk @FreedomFestHull #FreedomHull

Kate Tempest Hotly-tipped London rapper headlines the Bridge Stage

Become Spellbound An outdoor spectacular of love, jealousy & betrayal

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Blaze a trail to Hull’s urban street festival

A three-day outdoor event, FREE to attend, with some ticketed shows

Be the first to discover why Hull is the next UK City of Culture

2 www.freedomfestival.co.uk Welcome to Hull UK City of Culture 2017

Yorkshire’s only maritime city, Hull is a place shaped by the tides and the

seasons where east meets west, north meets south, island meets mainland.

The past is ours. The future is ours. It’s our time.

On 20 November 2013, Hull was named the UK City of Culture 2017Amidst tough competition from Dundee, Leicester and Swansea Bay, Hull showed that it could host the UK’s next big cultural event by setting out ambitious plans for a unique and thrilling programme of cultural activity, which would excite communities across the city and far beyond.

More than anything, the city showed that it could deliver a world-class UK City of Culture programme that was so firmly rooted in Hull it could not come from anywhere else.

Now it is your opportunity to get one step ahead this summer and visit our flagship event, Freedom Festival.Discover first hand a city coming out of the shadows and taking to the streets to embrace our culture and blaze our own trail.

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Lucy BeaumontI sometimes get a feeling, in the pit of my stomach. I forget what the feeling is at first, and then I remember … I’m homesick.

I never realised until I moved away and came back how much Hull feels by the sea - that North wind, the heritage in the Old Town, the fish and chips, the legacy of Hessle Road.

Hull is becoming a cultural city, but culture in a city is not just about institutions and visitor attractions. It’s about what happens on the street, giving people a voice and nurturing the younger generation.

Freedom for me is about acceptance and every city needs a bit more of that.Festival spirit should happen day-to-day.

Freedom Festival has grown to be a really unique celebration of the arts that celebrates and hopefully continues to support and inspire local talent. And there’s plenty of talent - I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people from Hull that are naturally gifted in music and the arts.

I hope this year is a big success for everyone involved.

Lemn Sissay MBE

The most striking thing that I noticed about Freedom Festival last year was this sense of optimism radiating from the people of the city. Hull, which is embracing of culture, is an example of what it’s like to be in an environment that is an inspiration to the people within it. It is exciting to be in a city on the up, not on a plateau or at its peak.

My performance of Martin Luther King’s speech at last year’s festival was one of the most inspirational moments – no, the most inspirational moment – of my year. In that moment I was very proud to be connected, even in some small way, to Hull.

Aside from the cultural context, the festival was a happy place to be! Hull’s art, like all art, is what will promote us and show us to ourselves, both the dark side and the light.

Because art is the imagination, and everything that we’ve ever built began in the imagination. Ultimately, imagination is the engine of humanity, and so a festival of the arts, like Freedom Festival, is a celebration of humanity.

Introducing

Explore

The Long Walk to Freedom Light Trail

Hull & The Urban Playground

Freedom and Hull

Yellow Bus Stage

Kate Tempest and the Bridge Stage

Become Spellbound

Humber Street by day and night

Find your freedom - the WISE debates

Dance

Don’t just watch, be a part of it!

NoFit State Circus

Galleries and art

Ballad of the Burning Star meets the Museum of Club Culture

Acrojou

Comedy

A World of Colour

Our thanks

Visiting Hull & East Yorkshire

Hull-born comedian Lucy Beaumont and acclaimed writer and broadcaster Lemn Sissay MBE both appeared at 2013’s three-day Freedom Festival, attended by more than 80,000 festival-goers.

Here they share their own unique perspectives on Freedom and outline why you should visit Hull to experience this year’s festival on 5-7th September 2014.

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4 www.freedomfestival.co.uk

The Long Walk to

Light TrailFreedom

The Long Walk to Freedom will bethe focal point of Freedom Festival’sopening night, creating a stunning lighttrail through Hull’s Old Town.

Eight local artists have beencommissioned to create newinstallations, inspired by NelsonMandela, with each artwork bringingits own individual magic and markingparallels between Mandela’s work infighting for equality and the origins ofFreedom Festival.

Audio-visual installations, dynamicinterplays of light and shadow and a 75metre mural created by 10 graffiti artistswill all feature as the trail winds its wayfrom Hull’s Museum Quarter.

At dusk in the Nelson Mandela Peace Gardens, the Freedom Chorus will welcome the Freedom Flame – a Dutch flame symbolising the end of occupation during WWII – officiallymarking the opening of the trail and thestart of the festival on Friday night.

Street theatre performers Spark! will then lead the audience from the heart of the Old Town to the Yellow Bus Stage in the heart of the Marina, where they will deliver a Friday night spectacle of pyrotechnics, DJs and more.

These mysterious drummers and dancers are set to transform thelandscape with an explosion ofkaleidoscopic light and dynamicmovement, kicking off a joyous partyatmosphere for the festival weekend.

Nelson Mandela’s greatest moments and achievements, reimagined as installations of light, colour and sound, will be played out on the cobbles of Hull’s Old Town to mark the opening of Freedom Festival 2014.

Whispered WordsMuseum Quarter

People Like UsScale Lane Staith

Inside My MindHigh Street

The Fight for FreedomMuseum Quarter

Mandela MuralHigh Street

Vision of FreedomHigh Street

Free as a BirdMuseum Quarter

To the Better Place We Dream Of High Street

The Fire GardenTidal Barrier

The Long Walk to Freedom Light Trail is a joint commission between Roots & Wings and Freedom Festival Ltd, produced by Festival Directors Walk the Plank

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Nelson Mandela was a politician and activist, who gained international fame in the early 1960s with his famous ‘Speech from the Dock’, when he expressed his ideal of ‘a free society in which all persons live together in harmony’.

In 1964 Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. He served until his release in 1990, when he immersed himself in negotiations to end apartheid.

He was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and, in 1994, was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically-elected President.

Mandela spent his final years dedicated to his charitable foundations and died at home in December 2013.

His life has served as an inspiration to all who oppose oppression, deprivation and injustice.


While Freedom Festival’s eclectic programme and alfresco atmosphere can be experienced at a number of city centre locations, the majority of the festival action is based in Hull’s historic Fruit Market.

The area is becoming renowned for harnessing and showcasing the city’s vast creative scene: emerging from the warehouses, docklands and the nooks and crannies of our cobbled streets.

Freedom Festival celebrates freedom and equality through shared spaces and histories, present and future - what better place to explore this than in Hull’s very own urban playground?

The Fruit Market and the adjacent, picturesque Hull Marina provide the perfect backdrop for parkour team The Urban Playground.

Their show The Inner City brings the technical discipline of parkour and mixes it with The Urban Playground’s distinctive blend of slapstick choreography.

Accompanying original content with a unique outdoor touring parkour structure, audiences are guaranteed a breath-taking performance rooted in the urban setting and The Urban Playground’s own personality. This street performance has creative licence to transform its landscape and draw inspiration from the area’s industrial past.

Hull The Urban Playground

SATURDAY & sunday

Don’t miss it:

“In the once disused warehouses of the city’s Fruit Market district, close to the dockside, bars, clubs, galleries, delis and microbreweries are appearing. The area has the look and feel of East London’s now fashionable Shoreditch 20 years ago.” Jamie Doward, The Observer

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Pedal Power

SATURDAY

dance stageDon’t miss it:

Through his tightly-controlled tricks, Keelan invites you to watch a new language of movement unfold as he manipulates his body, balance and bike. His strong sense of individual style allows lyrical originality to flow through his entire performance, speaking to both riders and non-riders alike.

BMX star Keelan Phillips’ performance will make your head spin with his unique fusion of flatland riding and art.

“In the once disused warehouses of the city’s Fruit Market district, close to the dockside, bars, clubs, galleries, delis and microbreweries are appearing. The area has the look and feel of East London’s now fashionable Shoreditch 20 years ago.” Jamie Doward, The Observer


What does

Freedom – a universal concept that represents something different to everyone. Some of the acts and artists heading to this year’s festival tell us what freedom means to them:

mean to our artists?

Travelling with no destination, for the joy of the journey. NoFit State Circus

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Amnesty International

Freedom comes from kindness. Kindness is everything. If ever you don’t know the right thing to do, try being kind. Dominic Berry

Liberation. C-12 Dance Theatre

Freedom to object to acts of war perpetrated in our name throughout history. Carol Ann Duffy

The fact that we can take freedom for granted is beautiful – the fact that some can’t is a crime! Fruit Trade Music

Absence of political or social oppression. Opportunity to explore the world and its dynamics physically, artistically and kinaesthetically. FlameOz

Being able to fully express our creativity. Kuljit Bhamra

The right to make, speak and think as one wants. Ready Steady Colour

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Storytelling is one of the most ancient art forms and is woven into the cultural fabric of countries across the world. The Tell Tales Tent is playing host to a range of storytellers, from English folk to traditional Yiddish, providing something for all the family.

Dominic Berry, award-winning children’s poet, is performing his highly-acclaimed shows The Dragon Who Hates Poetry, Spark: The Goblin Wizard and When Trolls Try To Eat Your Goldfish on Saturday and Sunday.

His stories are captivating for everyone aged 5 to 105 – a mix of comedy, exuberance and the fantastic.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that stories are only for children! Specialising in stories from Africa, the Caribbean and Arabia, Jan Blake will be telling Man, Woman, Life, Love on Saturday evening – a story of shape-shifters, lovers, the wise and the foolish, promising to bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your face.

Dominic Berry

Freedom Festival celebrates, through artistic and cultural expression, Hull’s independent spirit and historic contribution to the cause of freedom. I believe there are two reasons why the concept of freedom is woven so deeply into the identity of our city. The first – and most obvious – is the link to Hull-born MP William Wilberforce and his championing of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire more than 200 years ago.

The second link between freedom and the city is more abstract, and has to do with the city’s location and history. Philip Larkin talked of an ‘end-of-the-line sense of freedom’, much to some people’s annoyance, who think of Hull as central.

What Larkin detected was a sense of having escaped from the network of interrelations, external forces, metropolitan sophistications, mainstream pushes and pulls.

These things can all evoke negative connotations, of being isolated or insular. But Larkin saw it as giving the city a different resonance – which we think is a positive thing!

Freedom Festival, as an event, grew out of the bicentenary celebrations of Wilberforce’s momentous Slave Trade Act, and is now held annually here in Hull on the first weekend in September.

We very much hope you make a journey to the ‘end of the line’ and experience it for yourself. We look forward to welcoming you over the festival weekend.

Graham ChestersChair, Freedom Festival Board

Why Hull and Freedom?

tell tales

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Yellow

Bus Stage

Expect to see limbs fly all over the place when Riot Jazz Brass Band hit the stage with their infectious energy and dance floor bangers.

The Manchester-based nine-piece band will fill the Marina with their original peace-loving agro jazz and re-interpreted dubstep as we close our opening night on Friday at 10pm.

ABSTRACT ORCHESTRALive hip-hop with a big band punch!

SATURDAY @ 9.30pm

full line-up includes:

FOR THE FULL YELLOW BUS STAGE PROGRAMME VISIT:

FREEDOMFESTIVAL.CO.UK

NATURALLY 7Fresh from touring the States with Michael Bublé, this New York seven-piece will be gracing the Yellow Bus Stage on Sunday afternoon.

Naturally 7 are globally known for their unique ‘Vocal Play’ style, using only the power of the human voice to uncannily recreate the sounds of instruments from drums to guitars, producing a complete wall of sound.

Building on the heritage of gospel with a mind-blowing a capella technique, their sound incorporates scratching, drum kit, harmonica, brass, electric guitars and bass - with no instruments in sight!

Their next Yorkshire date will be in Leeds this winter – so music lovers are advised to catch them for FREE performing at Freedom Festival this September.

In its new home overlooking the water on Nelson Street, the Yellow Bus Stage will feature a packed three-day programme of global stars and world music favourites.

From American a capella to South Asian jazz to British soul, as you stand with views of the pier you’ll find yourself transported to a faraway land through the wonder of music.

riotjazz brassband

RUBY TURNEROne of Britain’s finest soul singers and R&B divas.

SATURDAY @ 5pm

ROLAND GIFTHull’s pop legend returns home and brings his silky vocals with him. The Fine Young Cannibals singer, made famous with hits including She Drives Me Crazy, Good Thing and Suspicious Minds, will be sure to take the Yellow Bus Stage by storm.

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The Yellow Bus stage has been programmed with our creative partners Hull Jazz Festival

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SUNDAY @ 5pm

SATURDAY @ 7.30pm

LIFE

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Bridge Stage Friday night welcomes you to Freedom Festival in style, with a headline appearance from hip-hop and electro collective Endoflevelbaddie.

Their show promises to be an explosion of fresh beats, sharp lyrics and slick visuals, and with their unstoppable energy, they’re sure to set a high bar for the rest of the festival weekend.

Ahead of Kate Tempest on Saturday night, Counting Coins and LIFE will hit the stage - two Hull bands with a growing reputation for stealing the show.

Counting Coins are as eclectic asthey are fun, with a head spinning mix of ska, punk and hip-hop.

LIFE, previously known as The Neat, are the latest local band to be gaining international attention – their most recent singles are earning high praise on Radio 1 and they’re taking huge strides in the new music world. Make sure you catch them here for free first!

Endoflevelbaddie

Kate’s perhaps best known for her work writing for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Channel 4 and the BBC, but she started out rapping on London night buses and at raves. She’s recently returned to her hip-hop roots with the release of her debut solo album Everybody Down. A strong fusion of accomplished storytelling and impassioned, interactive performance, this is a headliner to watch out for.

With all the major UK and European festivals under her belt, two Nuyorican poetry slam wins to her name, and a debut novel due in 2015, one can’t help but wonder if everything Kate touches turns to gold.

Kate Tempest will be headlining the new Bridge Stage.

As the youngest person ever to win the prestigious Ted Hughes Award for

innovation in poetry, Kate Tempest is hotly

tipped as one of the brightest new British

music talents around.

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Kate tempest

Be one step ahead & see them here first

Catch a new wave of emerging local talent while you can, as Hull-based musicians take to the brand new Bridge Stage.

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The Bridge Stage has been programmed with our creative partners The Warren

SATURDAY 6TH

@ 10PMFREE EVENT


Told through shadow play, traditional Indian dance, music and spectacular special effects, Spellbound includes a magical procession of dancers, drummers and a sea of lanterns.

The procession will snake its way through the city’s Fruit Market on the Saturday night of the festival, when spectators can expect dazzling pyro punctuation and a spectacular fiery finale!

Join us on this epic adventure through forests to a golden city, as we meet the powerful monkey god, encounter treacherous villains and battle for freedom and love.

Expect captivating illuminated scenes, dance, music, special effects and much more.

Spellbound is the creation of our Festival Directors, Walk the Plank, and supported by Arts Council England ’s Strategic Touring Programme.

Its appearance at Freedom Festival this September has been made possible through a joint commission between Roots & Wings and Freedom Festival Ltd., plus the support of Business Partner KC.

Outdoor spectacular Spellbound tells the great ancient epic of the Ramayana; a thrilling tale of love, jealousy, betrayal and daring.

Saturday night outdoor spectacularSATURDAY 6TH @ 9PM Hull marina

FREE EVENT

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SHEilds is proud to support Freedom Festival 2014

As a business born in Hull, we are proud of our roots and continue to promote our city and excellent local talent. Freedom Festival is an iconic display of Hull’s cosmopolitan diversity.

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Set in a make-believe restaurant, this interactive art and theatre experience will leave you hungry for more!

The food, the menu and the restaurant are all hand-drawn by creator Anna Bruder, and the audience will be served all manner of drawn foods to shade, colour and create their very own meal.

Take a trip into this weird and wonderful restaurant and remember – don’t play with your food, colour it!

This is another FREE event.

Seeds for the Desert transforms the urban spaces of Hull’s Fruitmarket into beautiful combinations of art and ecology, with quirky planter installations and spontaneous dance.

Within the Studio Eleven the A Flower for Mandela workshop allows festival-goers to make a beautiful white bone china flower to honour Mandela.

Finally, Studio Eleven celebrates Hull’s relationship to water with Water Runs Deep, an exhibition inspired by this ever changing and prominent aspect of our environment.

But in recent years, Humber Street has been at the forefront of the cultural and economic regeneration of the city’s Old Town. Now home to museums, galleries, performance venues and cafés, this bustling cobbled street is the perfect outdoor spot to enjoy Freedom Festival with the whole family.

Hull’s newest and most vibrant creative quarter is also the setting for many of Freedom Festival’s quirkiest and most eccentric events – from the exhibition Badge Mania to interactive family drawing experiences.

Ready Steady Colour

Henry loves books, but not like you and I love books … he loves to EAT books.

This five-minute show of puppetry, music and projection is a theatre adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ award-winning children’s book, following the story of Henry’s voracious appetite.

Set in a box booth with only enough room for one adult with a child on their knee, this may be the smallest theatre experience ever, but it is all the more special for it.

A ticket costs £5 and covers both adult and child, purchased on the door.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy Studio Eleven

By Day Once home to Hull’s thriving fruit market, Humber Street still bears the original signs and the wide loading bays of a bygone industrial age.


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Fruit – born in 2010 – has helped to spearhead the recent re-development of Humber Street, and continues to support the tide of young local talent.

62-63 Humber Street really is the place to party over the festival weekend, with the cutting edge venue Fruit hosting live music and DJs each night.

You’ll find indie club night Yo-Yo on Friday, pop-up party Residents’ Association on Saturday and an end of Freedom party on Sunday.

The transformation from day to night will bring a real party atmosphere, with festival-goers revelling in live music and buzzing DJ sets late into the night.

You won’t want to go home early, that’s for sure!

Just a few doors down from Fruit, local advocators Fruit Trade Music are playing host to heaps of enthusiastic local bands.

Itching to find the next Paddingtons or Housemartins?

They could be here!

The Fruit Trade Music Stage is open 7pm to late from Friday until Sunday.

A full line-up for this stage will be announced on the Freedom Festival website in the run up to the event.

By night

Fruit Trade Music Stage Fruit

At night, Humber Street comes alive with local bands at the Fruit Trade Stage, art at the KAG Gallery, and Sunday’s End of Freedom Party.

Keb Darge

Legendary Scottish DJ and Northern Soul royalty Keb Darge is hosting the prestigious ticketed Saturday night party in Freedom Festival’s Big Top, just opposite Humber Street, for a special night playing rare gems of 1950s rockabilly, R&B, surf and exotica.

Keb’s passion for retro, raw and uptempo dance music has fuelled his extensive record collection, spanning the 1940s to the 1970s.

His rockabilly classics, with strong rhythms, primal vocals and hypnotic textures are the original music of freedom and rebellion.

Saturday Night at The Big Top is the perfect place to let your hair down - the space will be full to the rafters, with an onsite bar and the entirely free Digital Funfair just next door.

With a zeal for life and equipped with the soundtrack of freedom, Keb’s appearance at this year’s festival promises to be pure fun - and at just £4 a ticket make sure you grab your spot early from www.freedomfestival.co.uk


Find your freedomIt is a warm, colourful and quirky city – an ‘end of the line’ kind of place – where you can step out of the ordinary and into the midst of a city that champions the unconventional. Follow in the footsteps of Philip Larkin, David Hockney and William Wilberforce and find your freedom in Hull.

Hull is a city that doesn’t know any different to being …different.

‘There is something in Hull which encourages an imaginative response to corners and details, sights and sounds, the effects of light and seasons. Lived in … it is seen to have its own backwaters, to have its own map of lives and places, to be its own world.’ Douglas Dunn

Inspiring world-class researchAs one of the city’s cultural leaders – the University is proud to sponsor freedom.We are proud to be at the forefront of the fight against modern day slavery. Through our specialist anti slavery research centre, the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), we are delivering world class research thereby promoting a better understanding of the scale of the issue while also informing international policy and other anti-slavery programmes.

The Freedom Festival nurtures an immense sense of pride in the city and we are delighted to show our support.

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www.hull.ac.uk

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WISE debatesThe University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) is opening its doors on Saturday 6th September for a series of public Freedom Debates.

Adjacent to Wilberforce House – the birthplace of Wilberforce – WISE is one of a handful of research centres in the world to offer expertise on slavery, both historical and contemporary.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, patron of WISE, stated that ‘it is vital that we continue to build knowledge and public awareness to challenge man’s inhumanity to man’, and WISE aims to raise awareness of modern-day slavery, and inform political and social change.

The Freedom Debates are running from 12noon to 3pm and allow visitors to the festival to explore the different relationships with the values of freedom. As a cornerstone of the festival, the debates ensure we never lose sight of the origins of this annual event and why it finds its home here in Hull.

“ We are too young to realise that certain things are impossible, so we will do them anyway”William Wilberforce

The Freedom Debates are running at the WISE building, High Street, on Saturday 6th September.

12pm-1pmMusic and Mandela, with legendary British broadcaster, Andy Kershaw

1pm-1.45pmSlave Routes to Trade Roots, with And Albert Foundation Founder, David Murden

1.45pm-2.30pmCargoes and Migrants, with The History Troupe Founder, Rob Bell

2.30pm-3pmCircus and Participatory Arts, with NoFit State Circus Founder, Ali Williams

To book your place, visit: freedomfestival.co.uk


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Halo by FlameOz Super-bright LED hula hoops, juggling clubs and glowing balls illuminate the patterns and textures drawn in the air by four virtuoso circus artists.

FlameOz will headline the Dance Stage on Saturday night before taking to the Old Town’s High Street.

With props specially fitted with powerful LED lights, this circus spectacular promises a human kaleidoscope of mesmerising colours, patterns and displays.

SATURDAY 6th @ 9pm High Street

Don’t miss it:

The Dance Stage has been programmed with our creative partners Hull Dance.


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SPONSOR ADVERT

Putting communities at the heart of our

street theatreprogramme

www.riverside.org.uk l @RiversideUK www.compendiumliving.co.uk

Riverside, Riverside ECHG and Compendium Living join the festival line up as Street Theatre Sponsors 2014

Riverside is one of the UK’s leading social housing and regeneration organisations and have invested over £17.6million into Hull since taking over 1184 homes in North Bransholme in 2010. Riverside are also building 36 new homes on Orchard Park with completion due April 2015.

This year, they have joined forces with Riverside ECHG, an organisation that provides specialist care and support services for vulnerable homeless people and those in sheltered and extra care housing within the Riverside group.

Completing the Street Theatre trio isCompendium Living who are about to begin the major development of the Ings Area of East Hull to provide 800 new homes and new public open space and recreational facilities.

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SATURDAY

& sundayFamily-friendly

The circus are the strangers who live amongst us – if we run away to join them, we are throwing off our inhibitions, our conventions, the rules of settled society. We are taking to the road knowing that there is no destination - only a journey.

Internationally-acclaimed NoFit State will bring their new work Open House to Hull this September as they transform Queens Gardens, an iconic piece of city centre green space, into Freedom Festival’s very own circus village.

Contemporary circus NoFit State combinelive music, dance, stage design, text and film with traditional circus skills as they take Queens Gardens by storm.

Don’t just watch the shows - get involved in them!

For the first time this year, you can see your favourite artists from the weekend reveal the method behind their madness, and have a go yourself.

Our workshop programme is largely free, including:

BMX Freestyle with Keelan PhillipsSaturday 6th, 12.15pm & 2.15pm

The Urban PlaygroundSaturday 6th, 12.25pm-1.10pm & 3.05pm-3.50pm

Sunday 7th, 12.25pm-1.10pm& 3.05pm-3.50pm

Acrojou’s German Wheel Acrobatics Saturday 6th, 2.15pm-3.45pm

Sunday 7th, 2.05pm-3.35pm

Story Telling with Dominic Berry1pm-2pm on Sunday 7th

Limited places, see website for more details:

freedomfestival.co.uk

Freedom Festival sees thousands of local people and community groups take part in processions, events and exhibitions each year.

Last year, families, individuals and groups formed part of a 1,000-strong torchlit procession through the city’s streets. At this year’s festival, communities form part of the processions for A World of Colour, The Long Walk to Freedom Light Trail, and the music and theatre spectacular Spellbound.

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FREEDOM WORKSHOPS

NEW FOR 2014!


See. Create. Experience. Hull’s cultural quarter doesn’t just

come alive during Freedom Festival – it’s thriving all year round with art galleries, markets, cafes and

performance venues.

These spaces are home to local artists, exhibitions, and community collectives, all of whom are opening

their doors throughout Freedom Festival to play host to a variety of

exhibitions and workshops.The region’s best known gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, which stands sentinel to Queen Victoria in Victoria Square, is running the When War Hit Home exhibition until January 2015. This touching centennial exhibition explores the effects of the First World War on Hull and its people, as a city and on the frontline. A must-visit whilst in Hull.

Studio 11 on Humber Street – part studio, part gallery – is offering the chance to commemorate and celebrate the contributions to the cause of freedom that Nelson Mandela and William Wilberforce achieved during their lifetimes. Head to Studio 11 over the weekend to make a beautiful white bone china flower and make your Freedom message more poetic.

In addition to the free pop-up art spaces and our eight city centre museums featured in The Guardian’s Top 10 free UK attractions, Hull is also home to the Oresome Gallery and Dinostar, both offering paid activities for visitors over the weekend.

Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, once famously commented that ‘it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’.

For over 50 years, Amnesty have been campaigning for justice and defending the rights of those denied freedom, truth or dignity. From two Portuguese students imprisoned in 1960 for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom, to the refugees and prisoners of the 21st century, Amnesty have a rich and complex history.

Hosted by local Amnesty branch Hull Amnesty Group, AI@50 is an art exhibition that hopes to shed some light on that history, and celebrate Amnesty’s work protecting freedoms and uprooting injustices.

Hull Amnesty Group are celebrating the power of a poster, with an exhibition featuring poignant Amnesty campaign posters from across the world. The posters, including artwork from Picasso, Miro and Genoves, touch on subjects from sporting events to oppressive governments, and from women’s rights to prisoners of conscience.

AI@50 will be at the 1 Gallery in Humber Quays on Hull Marina from Friday 5th to Saturday 6th September.

Hull’s Pop-Up Creative Art Spaces

FREE ENTRY(all exhibitions)

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Freedom Festival Ltd would also like to acknowledge the support of:

MUSEUM OF CLUB CULTUREThe humble pin badge – unassuming accessory or political statement?

Badge Mania takes you through the history of badges, from Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery badge of 1787 – acknowledged by Wilberforce as having an impact on the passing of the Slave Trade Act – to the classic smiley.

Also running at the world’s only Museum of Club Culture is Dutty Lingo, a multi-media arts installation, oral history, cultural exploration, and special event created for Tate Tanks in 2012.

Taking a cross-generational section of Hull residents, artists from Hull School of Art and Design have created a quad screen audio-visual masterpiece, with citizens of Hull discussing what freedom means to them, and their cultural and musical experiences.

Both exhibitions are FREE and open at the Museum of Club Culture on Humber Street, all weekend from 12noon-7pm.

BALLAD OF THE BURNING STARExperience how theatre can explore identity, religion and politics - in killer heels.

ABOVE: Ballad of the Burning StarDescribed as “a theatrical hand grenade” in its four-star Guardian review, the multi-award-winning Theatre Ad Infinitum presents this account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: an explosive satirical drag show of persecution, aggression and love.

Armed with music, killer heels and a lethal troop of divas, an enraged Israeli executes a story of of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through an explosive satirical drag show. With shrapnel-sharp voices and moves as smooth as an oiled tank chain, this cabaret troupe invites you on a journey into the core of a conflicted Jewish state.

BELOW: AcrojouCombining dark comedy and acrobatics, Acrojou’s The Wheel House sees a dramatic theatre performance unfold in a rolling wheel that winds its way through the audience.

Acrojou will be performing across the weekend at different outdoor sites in the Marina and Queens Gardens.

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After surviving two rehabs, various detention centres, and a childhood on the streets of Hull, Sam Harland draws on his wealth of experience to bring you a humorously cynical (yet optimistic) slant on life.

Sharp witted and charismatic, Sam has been performing stand-up since 2007 – a real audience pleaser.

On the other side of the table, Alfie Moore came slightly later to comedy and brings a wealth of insights and comedy moments from his eighteen years on the beat, where a keen sense of humour has been the key to his success and survival!

Alfie has an observational comedic style, which lends itself to witty, and sometimes gritty, anecdotes based on everyday modern policing.

Catch these two as they go head to head and look at the funny side of life and the law from two very different perspectives.

Book your tickets for just £8.50 (£7.50 concessions) and sit back to enjoy what promises to be 90minutes of comedy gold. www.freedomfestival.co.uk

Lincolnshire ex-copper Alfie Moore joinsHull-born comedian and ex-criminal Sam Harland in this comedic double header from both sides of the law, compered by comedian and self-styled carvery expert Scott Bennett.

SATURDAY 6th

@ 1.30pm Big Top

Ticketed event:

This unlikely show features proper stand-up comedians doing proper stand-up comedy – for kids!

With an MC, an opening act and a headline act, Comedy Club for Kids is run like any other adult comedy club, but aimed at children of 6+, telling jokes without any rude words so they can watch it! This show is sure to have both parents and children in stitches so book your family ticket early.

Comedy Club

For KidsScott Bennett

FriDAY 5th @ 9.30pm Big Top

Ticketed event:

Sam Harland Meets Alfie MooreSam Harland Meets Alfie MooreCASE SH 64731 DEPARTMENT OF COMEDY PRISONER: S.HARLAND DETAINED BY: A.MOORE BAIL RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY 5th SEPTEMBER, BIG TOP

Freedom to laugh

Proud to support local arts and culture

NUMBER ONE IN THE UK

www.abports.co.uk

Ayr | Barrow | Barry | Cardiff | Fleetwood | Garston | Goole | Grimsby | Hull Immingham | Ipswich | King's Lynn | Lowestoft | Newport | Plymouth | Port Talbot Silloth | Southampton | Swansea | Teignmouth | Troon | Hams Hall Rail Terminal

Handling everything from the wood in our guitars and the oil in our paint, to paper for artists and the fuel that keeps our theatres bright. ABP's 21 ports, together with the other transport-related businesses that constitute the ABP group, form a UK-wide network capable of handling a vast array of cargo.

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Keepmoat - working in partnership with Hull City Council

SPONSOR ADVERT

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A World Of

ColourAt his inauguration in 1994, Nelson Mandela voiced his dream of ‘a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.’

Inspired by this is the community procession A World of Colour, a rainbow parade set to transform Sunday into a riot of colour and light.

This will be a spectacular celebration of collective diversity, community and freedom.

The procession will wind through the city centre and into the Old Town, ending at the Marina for a fun-filled, paint-splattered finale.

Marking the end of the festival weekend, A World of Colour is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the life of Mandela and put paint and people power to his vision of a rainbow nation.

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It would not be possible to put on a largely free three-day event such as this without the support of the organisations and individuals who make Freedom Festival possible.

Our thanks go to ...

Official Funding PartnersArts Council England, Hull City Council, James Reckitt Library Trust & The Jack Brignall Trust

Freedom Business PartnersKeepmoat, Wykeland, Hull College, KC, SHEilds & The University of Hull,

Street Theatre SponsorsCompendium Living, Riverside and Riverside ECHG

2014 SponsorsABP, Spencer Group, Tony Cook Ltd, The Deep, & The World Trade Centre

Corporate Friends of FreedomRollits & William Jackson Food Group

Business Friends of FreedomMcCoys & Riverside Property

Individual & Family Friends of Freedom

Our Creative PartnersBuzz Comedy, Creative Voice, Freedom Chorus, Fruit, Fruit Trade Music, Heads Up Festival, Hull Dance, Humber Mouth, J-Night & The Warren and Warren Records.

In addition to the support of:Without Walls Associate Touring Network, Arts Council England Strategic Touring Fund, Roots & Wings and Ensemble 52 Theatre Company in association with Battersea Arts Centre

Advisory PartnersHull Amnesty Group, Hull Black History Partnership, Hull University Union & WISE

Media PartnerHull Daily Mail

Walk the Plank, Festival DirectorsForce-7, Festival Communications PartnerAutumnComms, Festival PR Agency

Finally, the Freedom Festival Board who voluntarily give their time each year to oversee the event.

sunday 7TH @ 3PM Hull city centre

FREE EVENT

Visiting Hull & East YorkshireHull’s location is at the heart of the UK, with the city being an equidistant 200 miles from London and Edinburgh, 100 miles from Manchester and less than an hour’s drive from Leeds and York.

Paragon Interchange is in the city centre, only a few minutes’ walk from the Fruit Market and Hull’s Old Town.

Rail, coach and bus services are all accessible under the same roof, and the station receives direct rail services from London and across Yorkshire.

With excellent road links connecting with the M62, M1, A1, M180 and M18, two international airports and a thriving ferry terminal that handles over a million passengers a year, we are at the end of the line ... where everything begins!

For more information on this year’s event, explore the festival website at www.freedomfestival.co.uk or for help planning your trip to Hull this September visit: www.visit-hull.com

Official Funding Partners Festival Directors

Blaze a new trail to Hull this September, and explore why this street festival in the next UK City of Culture should be the finale event of your summer.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Nelson Mandela

Documents

Freedom Festival 2014