Four Bumper Weekends In May Celebrate Coventry UK City Of Culture's Closing

The Coventry City of Culture Trust has announced four bumper weekends of activities to mark the closing of their tenure as UK City of Culture, with the UK City of Culture 2025 being announced in Coventry in late May.

Kicking off the action-packed weekends is Coventry Opens which, from Thursday 5 May to Sunday 8 May, sees cultural venues across the city opening their doors to welcome visitors to enjoy a range of workshops and activities. Coventry residents and visitors alike will be welcomed into buildings to visit somewhere new and explore new parts of the city.

Friday 13 May sees the opening of The Reel Store. The UK's first permanent immersive digital art gallery, situated in the centre of Coventry. The Reel Store opens with Refik Anadol's exhibition Machine Memoirs: Space.

Later that evening, and repeating on Saturday 14 May is The Awakening, a world premiere by ground-breaking French company Gratte Ciel. There will be a special prologue to the show featuring 100 local children in partnership with Coventry-based Highly Sprung, a UK leading physical theatre company. This major outdoor spectacle will take place above Broadgate - the historic heart of the city - for an audience of thousands.

Saturday 14 May also sees Coventry's City Centre being taken over by This is the City, a carnival-style spectacular parade featuring just some of the City of Culture's greatest hits from the last 12 months as thousands of people and school children take to the streets to celebrate - a party for, and by, the people.

As the sun sets on Sunday 15 May, Our Wilder Family, a spectacular artist-led drone show inspired by the movements of flocks of birds, will take to the skies above the city. The show - which at sixteen-minutes is the UK's longest drone display to date - is created by the world famous 'artivists' Celestial and explores the family of wildlife around us and our role in protecting the planet. The display, which has been conceived as a mesmerising bedtime story, features a new sound score created by Dan Jones, the BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award-winning composer, in collaboration with local communities.

Wildlife continues to take centre stage on the third weekend (Friday 20 - Sunday 22 May), with Coventry's myriad of parks and green spaces being celebrated with activities taking place across the city in Wildlife Gathering.

The festivities conclude with Radio 1's Big Weekend coming to Coventry's War Memorial Park from Friday 27 May - Sunday 29 May. The station's annual flagship live music event is expected to attract over 80,000+ fans across the weekend.

These four weekends will allow audiences to gather together for a full celebration which marks the astonishing achievements across an unprecedented year, as Coventry moves forward into a new chapter with culture at the heart of the city.

Weekend 1

Thursday 5 - Sunday 8 May

Festivities begin with Coventry Opens, which sees many of Coventry's wide-ranging cultural venues, museums and galleries including Belgrade Theatre, Drapers' Hall, libraries, faith centres and music venues throw open their doors to the public for a range of activities, workshops, meet and greets and backstage tours. This is a chance for visitors to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of Coventry's top cultural organisations, and get a taster of forthcoming programmes, and how citizens are able to influence them.

Weekend 2

Friday 13 - Sunday 15 May

On Friday 13 the UK's first permanent immersive digital art gallery, The Reel Store opens. This new visitor attraction for the city will feature innovative experiential art commissions. The first exhibition will be Machine Memoirs: Space, by internationally acclaimed artist Refik Anadol. The product of a long-term collaboration with NASA, this exhibition uses artificial intelligence (AI) to reimagine two million publicly available images of space taken by NASA satellites and telescopes, and the International Space Station, capturing the deepest regions of outer space. Through machine learning, the computer sorts and categorises these photographs, ultimately developing an understanding of them. Then, it creates stunning new digital interpretations of space that exist only in the mind of the machine.

Tickets are on-sale for Machine Memoirs: Space now.

Friday 13 and Saturday 14 sees the world premiere of The Awakening, created by Gratte Ciel, presented by Coventry City of Culture Trust. This 40-minute long, hypnotic, visual spectacle will see audiences being immersed in a colourful world of song, dance and circus. A large-scale outdoor performance, The Awakening is conceived as a shared experience for people to come together again after a long period of separation, weaving astounding acrobatics, high altitude aerial and mesmerising soundtrack with live musicians, and monumental set design.

Broadgate will be the home of a huge dream catcher that picks up a powerful desire for freedom, rising to a meteoric climax where an explosion of colour releases us to action.

The Awakening, whilst in Coventry, will feature over 100 local children. Gratte Ciel is working with Coventry-based Highly Sprung, a UK leading physical theatre company to create this.

The Awakening takes place in Broadgate, at the heart of Coventry's city centre where the famous Lady Godiva statue is located. Performances take place at 18.30 on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May with tickets going on sale on Friday 25 March.

On Saturday 14 May Coventry's streets will be taken over by This is the City, a carnival-style parade that will weave its way through the city. It will feature a mashup of the 2021 - 2022 programme, showcasing familiar faces and unsung heroes of Coventry UK City of Culture, with the parade being divided into 12 sections, one for each of the programme's monthly themes.

This is the City celebrates the diverse communities and audiences who have played a part in the last 12 months of celebrations: from City Hosts to all night ravers; upcycling fashionistas to faith leaders; Ska performers to community choirs. This is an unticketed, free event.

The weekend culminates on International Family Day (Sunday 15 May) with Our Wilder Family, a family-friendly bedtime story like no other. This unique art commission takes the form of a spectacular 16-minute drone show, with audiences set to be wowed with stunning visuals in the sky, created by Celestial in partnership with City Voices and schools across the city. It takes place with an audience at War Memorial Park, but is visible from up to a 2.5km radius from the park (weather dependent).

Working with live streaming specialist agency Limitless Broadband, Our Wilder Family will be pushing the boundaries of 5G technology, as audiences become part of the story with a drones-eye-view of the action, and the show being streamed live into homes across the world. The show does not require a 5G enabled mobile phone and can be enjoyed with regular service.

Our Wilder Family invites audiences to explore the family of wildlife that surround us. After the sun has set the city sky will become a stage for an epic story of the importance of nature and our role in protecting our planet.

The show is accompanied by poetry from local artists, and a live soundtrack created by composer Dan Jones, who returns after working on Coventry City of Culture's signature event, Coventry Moves. Dan has worked alongside Warwickshire Wildlife Trust with 7 - 10 year old pupils at local primary schools to create the sound score. Audiences will be able to stream the accompanying music and poetry through local radio stations and online.

Our Wilder Family takes place at 21.10 at War Memorial Park. The event will be ticketed, with tickets going on-sale on Friday 25 March, but the show can also be watched from within a 2.5km radius (weather dependent) as well as being live streamed online. Residents that live nearby War Memorial Park are encouraged to watch from local green spaces, gardens, rooftops, balconies and driveways. It's the perfect event to grab a blanket and warm drink, and encourage families and neighbours to come together to commit to our Green Future.

Weekend 3

Friday 20 - Sunday 22 May

Wildlife also takes centre stage on the third weekend, with Coventry City of Culture Trust celebrating World Bee Day (Friday 20 May), International Tea Day (Saturday 21 May) and International Day for Biodiversity (Sunday 22 May) with Wildlife Gathering.

Coventry's myriad of parks and green spaces will be celebrated with activities taking place across the city, from Spon End, to Coventry's heritage park. Families are invited to take part in community instigated 'bee and tea' parties; work with an artist to create their own habitat for animals in their garden (from hedgehog sanctuary to bird boxes); explore local walking trails and engage in an array of arts and crafts, or simply enjoy a picnic and appreciate the environment around them, exploring the hidden green spaces scattered across the city.

Tickets to the individual events that make up Wildlife Gathering will be released in due course.

Weekend 4

Friday 27 - Sunday 29 May

Festivities conclude with Radio 1's Big Weekend coming to Coventry's War Memorial Park from Friday 27 May - Sunday 29 May. The station's annual flagship live music event is expected to attract over 80,000 fans across the weekend. Performances will air across Radio 1, BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer. The line-up features some of the hottest names on the planet, including Ed SHeeran, Anne-Marie, Calvin Harris, Sigrid, KSI, George Ezra, Griff, Lorde, Dermot Kennedy, Charli XCX and Jax Jones

Chenine Bhathena, Creative Director of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, said:

"Our May weekends are a time for people across the country to come together to experience everything Coventry has to offer as our tenure as City of Culture comes to an end. From a ground-breaking 5G technology drone show, to a celebration and commitment to the wildlife around us; access to the best cultural institutions Coventry has to offer; to a carnival parade through the city celebrating our City of Culture programme; an aerial circus show like no other, to one of the UK's biggest live music events, there really is something for everybody. May will be a time for reflection and celebration, as we make new commitments and move forward as a city where art and culture will forever be centre stage."

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

"Coventry has been an absolutely fantastic UK City of Culture 2021, offering something for everyone across the city and more widely and helping increase access to the arts. The city will end its tenure in style and I encourage people to get involved in what will be four brilliant final weekends."

Cllr George Duggins, Leader of Coventry City Council, said:

"Our year as UK City of Culture has changed our city, and these closing events will be a great way to celebrate all that has been achieved and to finish our year in style.

"However, it is not just about celebrating what has gone, it is about looking forward. We always said we wanted our year to build a legacy for the future and to make arts and culture accessible to everyone in Coventry.

"Our year may be coming to a close, but it has created something special for all of us and although these may be the closing events, they are really just the latest in an exciting line that will keep culture, heritage and the arts at the centre of Coventry life.

"I hope people go along and enjoy them and help to end our year as UK City of Culture in style."

Tickets for ticketed events across the first three weekends will go on-sale on https://coventry2021.co.uk/

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