The Rugby League World Cup Cultural Festival is an ambitious, inclusive, multidisciplinary festival bringing together audiences for sport and art. Taking place in four of the tournament host cities, and across 40 library services reaching deep into the Rugby League heartland towns across the North, the festival will amplify the tournament’s strapline of “The Power of Together” and celebrate inclusivity and positive social impact.
The Rugby League World Cup Cultural Festival is directed and produced by Pinwheel and the partners are RLWC2021, Leeds 2023, Newcastle City Council, Hull City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Libraries Connected.
#RLWC #PowerOfTogether #PowerOfPerformance #PowerofPoetry
Power of Performance: This is Us
A spectacular new outdoor performance brings the atmosphere and passion of the Rugby League out of the stadium and onto the streets. All before kick-off.
This specially-commissioned free show, which features dance, music and aerial performance, tells three unique stories about the game and its people, charting how it has evolved from its roots to the sport we see today.
Bringing together passionate fans of sport and art This Is Us celebrates The Power of Together with a central company of professional performers collaborating with a participant cast of local residents.
Power of Performance: This is Us is coming to Hull City Centre on Saturday 22 October. Performance run from 16:00 to 18:00 on a repeating cycle.
- Locations: Trinity Square, Zebedee’s Yard & Queen Victoria Square
- You can visit any time between 16:00 and 18:00 and experience the three sites in any order.
- Performances are free and open to everyone
For more information about the performances visit https://www.pinwheel.org.uk/hull-power-of-performance
Power of Poetry
What magic happens when, instead of writing alone, poets work together?
“I was listening to the Rolling Stones and asking myself what makes the magic, thinking about how the band have a magic electricity together, an elevated energy that they don’t have as solo artists, but how writing together makes magic happen. And I suddenly thought- why don’t poets ever try to write together?” Robert Montgomery
Inspired by the Rugby League World Cup strapline “The Power of Together” artist and poet Robert Montgomery has joined forces with Emergency Exit Arts and eight leading poets, to create four, striking, double-sided light poems.
The impressive new mobile artworks explore themes of inclusivity, the sound of the stadium, the joy of reconnecting through sports post-lockdowns and the dynamic nature of rugby league. Mounted on the back of trailers, the poems will be unveiled at Light Night Leeds on Thursday 13th October before heading to Newcastle City Centre where they will be displayed at the inaugural game of the Rugby League World Cup on Saturday 15 October.
The poems will then journey across the North of England stopping off at locations in and around Rugby League World Cup host cities, from civic squares, to stadiums, libraries to local rugby league clubs.
Can you spot all four of the poems as they make their way around the North this autumn?
The Poets and the Poems
The poets – each with a connection to at least one of the Rugby League World Cup host cities – worked in teams to create the four poems.
Team 1: Shane Rhodes & Vicky Foster with Robert Montgomery
Team 2: Jackie Kay & Zaffar Kunial with Robert Montgomery
Team 3: Louise Wallwein & Jacob Polley with Robert Montgomery
Team 4: Malika Booker & Sinéad Morrissey with Robert Montgomery
For more information about upcoming tour dates for Power of Poetry in Hull, East and North Yorkshire visit https://www.pinwheel.org.uk/pop-hull
