Hull 2017 launches with huge fireworks display
The city's year in the spotlight kicked off with a huge fireworks display and city-wide installation.
A fireworks display bigger than London's New Year's Eve event has helped launch Hull's year as UK City of Culture for 2017.
25,000 people attended last night's stunning display on the Humber.
The opening of a city-wide installation involving many of Hull's best-known buildings also helped kick start Hull's year in the spotlight.
'Made in Hull' will use huge projections by a range of local and international artists to celebrate the past 70 years of Hull's history on buildings across the city.
It has been curated by the Bafta-nominated documentary-maker Sean McAllister, who said he thinks the effect will be euphoric''.
Mr McAllister said: It's exciting and hectic, but it's also rewarding.
For the last year, we've been slowly and painstakingly putting the whole thing together.
A lot of it's new for me because I make documentaries so it's a totally different adventure for me. And now, finally, we're signing off the main projects and reaping the rewards - seeing the delights.''
Hull is the second city to be given UK City of Culture status, following Derry-Londonderry in 2013.
The city was selected in 2013 amid some surprise, from a shortlist that included Dundee, Leicester and Swansea Bay.
Since then, Hull has embraced the status with a determination to link a cultural rejuvenation with an economic one symbolised by the #300 million investment by the German tech firm Siemens in an offshore wind manufacturing plant at Alexandra Dock.
Hull Maritime Museum will begin the year with a look at the city's whaling history with an audiovisual installation of a Bowhead whale.
And the city's well-known Hull Truck Theatre's programme will include a new play by Hull writer Richard Bean, The Hypocrite, set in the English Civil War - which started in Hull - and starring Game Of Thrones and Full Monty actor Mark Addy.
Other highlights of the year will include a celebration of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, which will focus on the role of guitarist Mick Ronson, who was from Hull.
Council leader, Stephen Brady, has said more than 1 billion of investment has flowed into the city since the UK City of Culture announcement, including 100 million of capital investment in the cultural and visitor infrastructure.