The Hull Vigil

Beginning on the spring equinox, the UK premiere of The Vigil will commence in Hull with a monumental performance celebrating the choreography of a city.

Each day for a year at sunrise and sunset a vigil will keep watch over Hull from a bespoke structure located on top of the Hull College building, overlooking Queen’s Gardens and the William Wilberforce statue. Over the course of the year 730 people will contribute to the collective vigil, watching over the city in a 365-day silent performance.

Commissioned and produced by Freedom Festival, Hull will be the first UK city to host this timely, thought-provoking and large-scale monumental work created by Australian-Belgian choreographer Joanne Leighton from Paris-based WLDN. The
support of our partner Global Streets has enabled this work to be brought to Hull. We are proud to work with Hull’s Esteem group to build and install the Vigil Shelter and with Hull College to provide the venue and additional support.

Over the past eight years The Vigil has been running continuously in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. In 2021 it comes to Hull for its 10th performance.

A community project built by Hull for the people of the city, this will be a performance with a narrative running deeper throughout the year. While each vigil stands alone, together they form a human chain and a manifestation of community, humanity and resilience. Something even more significant today.

At sunrise and sunset, each vigil will step inside the structure without their phone to watch over the city for an hour, looking out across the Humber to the east, the urban spread to the north and across the suburbs and countryside to the west.

Esteem and their local supply partners are assisting in the development and delivery of the project. Anyone over 18-years-old is invited to take part in The Vigil, it is free to participate and bookings will open on 20 January 2021. The unique, solitary nature of The Vigil will enable it to continue should lockdown restrictions tighten once again.