Dynamo works magic in Bradford to launch UK City of Culture 2025

Thousands of people braved sub-zero temperatures to watch an open-air spectacle starring magician Steven Frayne (née Dynamo), a 10-year-old rapper and a dozen aerial dancers to bolster Bradford's reputation as a UK city of culture The year has begun.

Frayn told the audience that he began his career performing street magic in the city park where the opening ceremony was held and that his home city would “make its mark on the world” in 2025.

Organizers said about 10,000 people came to watch the show, which was held in temperatures of -3 degrees Celsius (26.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Bradford is the fourth British City of Culture, a title awarded every four years.

The scheme aims to boost visitor numbers, the economy and reputation of the chosen city, and Bradford has received £15m in government funding this year.

Other events will include the Turner Prize, a national painting project inspired by Bradford-born artist David Hockney, and an exhibition on the similarities between boxing and calligraphy.

Frayne said being featured in Friday's opening ceremony “means more than my words can express.”

“It's truly a dream come true to be in a place where there's a huge stage in the center for people to come and share the surprise,” he told BBC News beforehand.

“I'm very proud to be from Bradford. It's not necessarily the easiest place to grow up…so to be a small part of this (celebration), it's incredible.”

The opening show, titled “Rise,” features a cast of 200 actors, including 10-year-old rapper Cruzy T, as well as poets, musicians and dancers with Frayne, and features themes of naked pride, unity, diversity and Overcome adversity.

On both stages, scaffolding towers formed a cluster of boxes containing the performers, with slogans and visuals of the city and its people projected onto the front.

Projections were also used to transform the tower into Frayne's childhood home, with a young actor playing Frayne as a child, and then the real magician recruiting the audience to take part in a series of magic tricks.

The play will be performed again on Saturday.

Bradford 2025 creative director Shanaz Gulzar said the opening campaign aimed to showcase how Bradford and the UK are “incredibly diverse, representative, resilient and powerful, and capable of doing the amazing and impossible” matter”.

She hopes this year will make Bradfordians proud, bring more investment and showcase a new side of the city.

“There is a certain media and a certain image of Bradford, but that's not true,” she said.

“Every city in the UK has flashpoints, there are challenges and you need to give places space and time to navigate and work through them,” she said.

“We are more than a flashpoint, we are more than a moment, we are more than our challenges, we are also our opportunities.”

Gulzar said that as a city of culture, the National Science and Media Museum had attracted funding for a £6 million refurbishment.

The museum reopens this week after 18 months with an exhibition of selected videos and photography by Hockney. Meanwhile, a Hockney-inspired painting project will run throughout the year.

Other highlights include a tribute to Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar, a film season for working-class women in the north, the installation of a new 15m (50ft) sculpture in the city center and the eye-catching work of Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh An exhibition of surrealist photographs.

The exhibition will then tour to Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow, marking the first time a City of Culture event has toured all four countries in the UK.

Gulzar said winning City of Culture designation would also help attract a new British school, which has produced stars such as Adele and Tom Holland. It is expected to open in 2027.

However, the title hasn’t cast a spell on everything in Bradford’s cultural scene.

The former Bradford Playhouse, located next to the site of Friday's launch, was due to reopen as a City of Culture music venue following a £50 million refurbishment.

But NEC Group withdrew from operations at the project last year, leaving it vacant and leaving the council to find a new operator.

Previous Cities of Culture – Londonderry, Hull and Coventry – received increasing attention and investment during their tenures, but the lasting impact on the scheme after their terms ended was mixed. Results and mixed feelings.

• brontë sisters – Emily, Charlotte and Anne live in Haworth, Bradford
• Frederick Delius – The composer was born in Bradford in 1862
• JB Priestley – The playwright wrote his most famous work, “The Inspector Calls” in 1945
• David Hockney – Britain's greatest living artist was born in the city and studied at Bradford School of Art in the 1950s
• Andrea Dunbar – The playwright is best known for 1982's “Rita, Sue and Bob Too”

And five current cultural heroes:

• Zayn Malik – One Direction heartthrob is Bradford's 2025 ambassador
• bad boy cooler crew – Bassline rap trio nominated for Best Group at 2023 BRIT Awards
• Nia Archives – The jungle music producer was nominated for a Mercury Prize last year
• Zoe Thorogood – The graphic artist was nominated for five Eisner Awards in 2023, dubbed the “Oscars of Comics”
• AA hand – The crime novelist's books about detective Harry Virdee are being adapted into a major BBC One TV series

Additional reporting by David Sillitoe.