Holy Trinity is delighted and very proud to host one of the highlights of the 2015 Freedom Festival.
England’s largest parish church will provide a unique setting for Tubular Bells For Two, a ground-breaking reworking by just two musicians of Mike Oldfield's multi-layered, 20-instrument masterpiece.
Australian musicians Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts will perform Oldfield's seminal album - originally recorded in 1973 and the first release on Richard Branson’s Virgin record label - faithfully recreating the masterpiece in real time as they leap around the stage using more than 20 instruments.
The award-winning show, described as “the musical equivalent of the triathlon, with bells on”, will be performed on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th September. Tickets are available at www.hullboxoffice.co.uk priced at £17 and £15 for concessions.
The shows were announced today among the first details of the programme for Hull’s premier artistic and cultural festival. It includes a headline performance from one of the country’s most exciting live bands, Public Service Broadcasting, and new work from internationally-renowned, pioneering sound artist Scanner.
The festival’s opening night will include a spectacular and uplifting site-specific performance, Voices of Freedom, which explores the River Hull, its past and its impact in shaping the future of the city, and will take place on and around the city’s Scale Lane swing bridge.
Now in its eighth year, Freedom Festival celebrates Hull’s historic links to the cause of freedom as the birthplace of anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce. It will feature more than 200 acts – music, street theatre, outdoor arts, comedy, spoken word and more - across three days, set on the streets of Hull’s historic Fruit Market and in other city centre locations.
Use of Holy Trinity for one of the headline-making performances in this year’s festival is recognition of the church as a unique cultural venue in the heart of Hull’s historic Old Town.
It will also showcase the further potential of Holy Trinity to host an even wider range of cultural and community events through completion of a £4.5m project to transform the church, internally and externally.
The plans include the restoration and re-modelling of Holy Trinity’s majestic interior to create a new flexible space in a beautiful setting for Christian worship, as well as to host banquets, concerts and a wide range of cultural events and performances.
The transformation of Holy Trinity is scheduled to be complete in time for the church to play a prominent role in Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017.
The Vicar of Holy Trinity, the Rev Canon Dr Neal Barnes, said: “We could not be more delighted to be hosting one of the showcase attractions of this year’s Freedom Festival.
“Holy Trinity is simply an amazing place and Tubular Bells For Two promises to be an amazing experience in a magnificent setting.
“This is a great boost to our profile as a venue for high-quality cultural and artistic events and to our exciting plans to open up the church, inside and out, and to bring our facilities up to date so that we can meet fully the needs of our growing congregation, our community and our city.”
You can find out more about our plans for the transformation of Holy Trinity here: http://www.holytrinityhull.com/amazing-development/