If you have been anywhere near Leeds recently, you will have hopefully heard of Celebrate Leeds 07. Launching at the Christmas light switch-on in November 2006, the festival was born to celebrate the 800th birthday since the foundation of the borough of Leeds. 1207 was the year that marked Leeds as an urban settlement, and Leeds went on to become one of the most famous industrial cities in the Victorian age. Celebrate Leeds has been a yearlong festival to promote cultural diversity and community spirit, and has been aimed at… everyone!
Kate Vigurs, the Festival Co-ordinator, hailed Celebrate Leeds as an amazing festival, and emphasized that so many opportunities were opened up to people during the last year. It is unfortunate that this festival could only last a year, but a year was felt to be long enough to put plenty of money into these projects, and it is hoped that it has raised awareness and community feeling within the folk of Leeds, in order that these projects and events will continue successfully.
Kate has been working on Celebrate Leeds 07 for the last three years. In 2004 she started with the planning of the festival. Although 2007 seemed a long time in the future back then, she needed to start letting people know about what was going to happen, and to start getting partners and sponsorship. She also began researching the schools education pack, which has been distributed to primary schools in the region throughout the last year. She had plenty of other projects to organise, and started the very successful Light Night in 2004. During the festival in 2007, her tasks were very varied; from project management on ‘Medieval Leeds’, working with the Universities, producing information for brochures and websites, along with plenty of other things. Celebrate Leeds is organised by the Leeds City Council in partnership with the Royal Armouries Museum. Kate was working for the latter, although she felt just as involved with the Council by the end. If Kate had one hope from the festival, it would be that everyone had heard of Celebrate Leeds 07. The festival did well at reaching all sections of the Leeds community from students, community groups, artists and historians. Hopefully you will have been involved in at least one of the events, even if you were not aware it was associated with the festival.
The festival focused on ‘Big On’s’; Arts/Culture, Business and Commerce, Communications, Environment, Future, History, People, Sport and Leisure. It was in these areas that efforts were made to enhance their profile and interest in Leeds. Kate was most interested in the history aspect as she comes from a museum background. She says: “As I was researching the schools education pack I was learning so much, I knew nothing about Leeds before that!” She hopes that all of the history events brought Leeds to life for people, and made people aware of where they were living. The teaching packs have been very successful, and they go hand in hand with a new project on story telling. Earlier in the year she commissioned a story called ‘Jack and the Maze’ which has been introduced to Leeds primary schools. During the next few months, a live historical interpreter will return to the schools dressed as a Victorian policeman to tie all of the history projects together.
You might have heard of the recent Light Night event, perhaps you even attended, and spent the evening trotting around the many events happening in the city. The idea of Light Night is based on a European model of opening the doors of cultural places after hours, and putting on extra forms of entertainment such as music and performance. Light Night was started by, and is still organised by Kate and James Hill, and was inspired by a trip to Amsterdam and some other events across Europe. Kate felt that this years Leeds effort was definitely up there with Amsterdam. She says that the Italian version is much more based on music, where there are plenty of closed streets filled with stages and fashion shows, but as you might have noticed, the Leeds version is more arts based. Kate felt that Light Night was a great success: “It went really well, the best one yet! Such a variety of things were put on”. This year there was the introduction of Light Breeze that happened earlier on in the evening and was aimed at families. There were also lots of bigger projects happening, and the Royal Armouries were involved for the first time. It is estimated that 25,000 people were in the city that evening for Light Night, and she notes that: “The atmosphere in the city changed. People were not just there for the pubs and clubs but the elderly and children were there to enjoy the evening.” All of the venues were busy, even some that were more out of the way such as Project Space Leeds - who, although only opening for two hours, saw at least 80 people through the door. The Royal Armouries might also be perceived to be out of the way, but had 2200 people visiting. Kate feels that the free city buses were perhaps very helpful at encouraging people to travel around the city. The legacy of Light Night continues as the Celebrate Leeds photos that were placed on Millennium Square for the night have been moved to Briggate to make way for the German Christmas Market. Kate’s favourite event at Light Night was Hydrologic at the Holy Trinity Church. She says: “There was the sound of a thunderstorm, and running water on the roof. There were screens all around the room, and I just lay on a pew at 2am”.
Kate feels that there is a massive diversity in Leeds: “There is always somewhere to go and something to do”. The Hype hopes that everyone who lives in Leeds feels this way too, and if you do not, it is definitely time to start picking up more brochures and getting on more websites. Kate’s favourite events of the last year have been Medieval Leeds, in which she successfully managed to host a joust at Kirkstall Abbey- the only medieval building left in Leeds. And of course, she also loved Light Night.
There is a Secret Leeds Forum on the Celebrate Leeds 07 website, which is filled with threads about forgotten pubs, hidden war bunkers and many other exciting things that only residents of Leeds could really know about. James Hill manages this forum, and it has been amazingly popular, so much so that Kate says it has been hard to keep up with the admin! She is hopeful that this will continue without the festival. Another event that is going to continue the legacy and memory of the festival is the planting of trees around Leeds. This is happening during autumn, as this is the best time of the year to plant the saplings. Hopefully 800 trees will be planted around Leeds, and you can decide wherever you want to plant them, church yards, parks, or even your garden- as long as you get permission from the council first!
Celebrate Leeds 07 will not exist after the new year, and there will not be another Celebrate Leeds in the same vein for perhaps another hundred years, but this does not mean that the celebrations are over. There are always plenty of things to be celebrating, whether it is Sport, University achievements, Art, Film Festivals and many other things. However, Kate hopes dearly that many of the projects will continue with the same enthusiasm as before. During 2008 it will be the 150th anniversary of the Town Hall, so there will be plenty more celebrations to come. She hopes that many of the projects started in 2007 will continue, such as Live at Leeds. Some events that happen every year were picked up by Celebrate Leeds and made bigger, and these will go back to their normal size, but hopefully with the same vigour.
There is plenty to celebrate, and the success of Celebrate Leeds 07 shows that people are more than willing to join in the party and learn more about where they live. So get involved in your city, and become a part of the culture.
http://www.celebrateleeds07.com/
