Leeds 2023 programme revealed

Further details of events for Leeds 2023 Year of Culture have been announced, with organisers promising a "three-part epic programme" that will "let culture loose" across the whole city.

A special opening event, The Awakening, will kick things off on 7 January at Headingley Stadium.

Co-directed by Leeds 2023 Creative Director and CEO Kully Thiarai and Alan Lane, it will “celebrate Leeds’ past, present and future” with performances by the singer Corinne Bailey-Rae, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and the rapper Graft.

Other major projects include Smeaton300, a creative programme inspired by the work of Leeds-born civil engineer John Smeaton. It will feature a mobile observatory designed by artists Heather Peak and Ivan Morison that will tour the city from June.

In October, artist Yinka Shonibare will be unveiling his Hibiscus Rising sculpture, commissioned in partnership with the David Oluwale Memorial Association.

Thiarai said: “In challenging times, the story of our creativity in Leeds can provide much needed comfort, joy and inspiration to ourselves and to the nation.

“It will be a year when we all get to tell our stories, old and new, known and forgotten, in an act of determined collective defiance. And we invite everyone to be a part of it.”