What a year it’s been! A PRSF award for programming, two fantastic indoor festivals at Hull Truck, a fabulous Freedom Festival weekend in September, one rural tour of 34 dates and, to cap it all, Hull is named UK City of Culture 2017.
Over 2,500 paying customers, 75,000 attenders at Freedom, 40 bands, 250 musicians, Muddy Waters’ son, plus the legend that is Ginger Baker, playing in both Hull and York.
2013 was the year that Hull Jazz Festival celebrated 21 years of programming. We expanded our programming to incorporate a summer edition in July, a winter edition in November and the outdoor Freedom Festival in September.
Headliners included Ginger Baker, Catrin Finch (Wales), Christine Tobin (Ireland), Courtney Pine, Seckou Keita (Senegal), Tim Kliphuis and Paulus Schaffer (Holland), Keith Loftis and Jean Toussaint (US), Mud Morganfield (US), Tcha Limberger (Belgium, Empirical )and Akala. Our thanks go to every single musician and audience member for creating such memorable occasions.
We are indebted to Arts Council England and Hull City Council plus the PRS Foundation, without whose support this work would not be possible. Thank you!
2014 promises to be an exciting year as we continue our year-round work of bringing the best talent from around the world to Hull to delight and surprise our fantastic audiences. So look out for our announcements!
“ The Freedom Festival in Hull last weekend was a “this is how to do it” guide for any city. “ – Ron Burnett, York Press