Leeds 2023: Cute Kids And Sleeping Giants
Liz Ryan reflects on #TheAwakening, the opening event of Leeds Year Of Culture 2023
One night in early January, a giant head appeared in the sky above the affluent Leeds suburb of Headingley.
In other places, at other times, this might have sparked a War Of The Worlds-style exodus, as alarmed citizens took to their cars in flight. But not in pragmatic Leeds. “Reckon summat’s on at t’Stadium,” was the general verdict. And if Martians had landed, or any other kind of extra-terrestrial force, the locals of this youthful, post-industrial city, which boasts five universities and a thriving financial and legal sector, would merely have enquired after their pronouns before trying to sell them a current account upgrade.
The locals were right. The disembodied spectre appeared as part of final rehearsals for the opening ceremony of Leeds 2023, a year-long celebration to highlight the cultural offer of a vibrant Northern city which outside Yorkshire remains linked in the British public’s mind mostly with dour 19th-century muck …