It’s finally here – and what a first week!

It’s finally here – and what a first week!

by Hawk Editorial Comment Closed
So, Hull City of Culture 2017 is a week old - but it feels a lot longer. And I mean that in a good way. I'm already feeling a mixture of exhaustion, exhilaration and childish excitement after what's been going on in the past seven days, and if it keeps up at this pace, then this year is going to be simply incredible. It's been such a long time coming, and after years of hearing the same tired clichés about our downtrodden northern town, it's hard not to be bursting with pride at the way the people of our city of Hull (and a sizeable number of people not from Hull) have supported the year's first events. Well over 300,000 attended the opening Made in Hull installations, and whether that's unique visits or people coming back again and again (and there were lots of them), hardly matters; I haven't seen the city centre this full to bursting since the Hull City promotion celebration...
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Why I’m volunteering for Hull 2017

Why I’m volunteering for Hull 2017

by Hawk Editorial Comment Closed
The other day, I became 'part of the family'. In other words, I completed the core training necessary to become a Hull 2017 City of Culture volunteer. There's a lot of cynicism surrounding volunteering, and I do sometimes ask myself why I'm planning on giving up some of my precious time for free next year. How will I fit it all in? Will I be able to at all? I work for myself and have a load of extracurricular commitments, so I don't have a lot of spare time. Why on earth did I sign up to this? Well, I just wanted to be involved on some level, firstly. Next year is set to be an utterly magical year in the history of Hull, and being behind the scenes of spectacular events like Place des Anges and the Sea of Hull sounded like too good an opportunity to miss, frankly. During the training we were asked what was the lasting memory of the...
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