Hull Sets Out 5-Year Plan To Become Next UK City Of Music

Hull, a strategic port city and a gateway to England’s north, has sets its sights on the globally recognized UNESCO City of Music status to join UK cities London, Liverpool, Glasgow (Scotland), and Belfast (Northern Ireland).

To achieve this goal, the city has set out an ambitious five-year music plan “to put the city and its creative endeavours firmly on the music map,” according to a press release from the newly-launched Hull Music Board.

The Hull Music Plan, which was developed with the help of more than 100 music biz professionals, is built around four key themes: a focus on inclusion, ensuring fair and equal access to music opportunities, representation, and decision-making for individuals, talent, and communities; the strength of stories in raising Hull’s music profile nationally and internationally, including through the city’s UNESCO ambitions; championing music infrastructure, supporting talent development, music education, creative sustainability, live music venues, and audience growth; and the power of relationships, i.e. strengthening collaborations and networks locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

The newly launched Hull Music Board, will oversee and deliver the five-year music plan includes James Dickinson (head of Hull Music Service, lead partner for the Humber Music Hub); Jenni Harrison (creative director, co-lead of Hull Music Net); Sam Ryder (general manager Connexin Live); Cllr Rob Pritchard (portfolio holder for culture and leisure); James Meadows (Snr vice president marketing Chrysalis Records, Blue Raincoat Music); Gerard Gibbons (grassroots music advocate, business leader); Damien Greco (cultural marketing professional, promoter); Elle Douglas (creative manager The Warren Youth Project); Sarah Shiels (director at The New Adelphi Club CIC, youth music champion).

The musical heritage of Hull includes household names like The Beautiful South, and Everything But The Girl; indie darlings The Paddingtons; pop star Calum Scott; current BBC 6Music favourites LIFE, and shoe-gaze trailblazers Bdrmm; rising stars Fiona Lee, and Jodie Langford; to the award-winning grime artist Chiedu Oraka, who will support Coldplay at Craven Park for two sold-out shows in August.

Artist journeys and development are underpinned and supported by a thriving live scene and network of local venues, from the award winning grassroots venue The Adelphi Club, to the 4,000-capacity Connexins Live Arena, to the region’s biggest festival for independent music, the Humber Street Sesh.

Hull is the next English city proving that the country’s north is giving the south a run for its money when it comes to great live entertainment destinations, joining UNESCO City of Music Liverpool, as well as Manchester, which just announced that it’ll be hosting the Brits after almost five decades of being firmly rooted in the English capital of London.

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