Over 300,00 attend Hull City of Culture opening

Made in Hull, the opening event for Hull UK City of Culture 2017 attracted more than 342,000 people over seven days, it was announced today.

Made in Hull, which was led by creative director, the Hull born, BAFTA-nominated documentary film-maker Sean McAllister, featured the work of a variety of artists from Hull, the UK and beyond, who created installations of light, sound, projections and live action to powerfully bring to life the story of Hull over almost a century. The free event took place over seven evenings, from 1-7 January, launching 365 days of transformative culture for Hull's City of Culture year.

McAllister worked alongside the writer Rupert Creed, production designer Ala Lloyd, lighting designer Durham Marenghi and composer and sound designer Dan Jones to create the specially commissioned event.

Artists included local visual artist Helga Gift; Hull-born artist Preston Likely; local lens-based artist Quentin Budworth; Hull-born BAFTA winning, Oscar nominated producer Chris Hees; imitating the dog, who mix live performance and technology and are working with Hull-born composer Terence Dunn; innovative animation director and video designer Zsolt Balogh; interactive arts company Invisible Flock; film and photography studio Sodium; makeAMPLIFY, a collaboration between dance artist Jennifer Irons and audio visual artist Zach Walker; Jesse Kanda, who works in video, music and digital art; multimedia experimentalists Urban Projections.

Creative Director Sean McAllister said: "."

Martin Green, CEO and Director Hull 2017 said: "It's been a phenomenal first week for

Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and we've been blown away by the reaction to Made in Hull. I

would particularly like to thank the team, Hull City Council, the blue light services and of

course our volunteers for making it run smoothly. The creative team have been amazing

and the support from our partners, a host of other organisations and the hundreds of Hull

residents who contributed in many different ways has been critical to its success. With so

many wildly differing events taking place throughout the rest of the year, I hope people

will continue to be excited and urge everyone to be adventurous and try things out they

might not have considered before."