The Revival

Pride, happiness and optimism. These are some of the words that come to mind when I look back on the year my city has had. Kingston upon Hull, once a thriving fishing port in the north of England now stands tall as a figurehead for culture in the United Kingdom. From day 1 until day 365 this city has given its all to earn the title UK City of Culture. It’s been a journey that start long before the year of 2017. Way back in 2013 when Hull was awarded the prestigious title, the hard work started then. A four-year growth from 2013 to now has given us citizens a city to be proud of.

Start anew

My story on this long voyage starts in September 2015. The month I took a step into the unknown and joined a new college course. The decision that spark new pastures and new beginnings for me. Prior to making this monumental choice, my life was rutted in mediocrity. I needed excitement and something to work towards. This course injected new life within me. 4 years of media was on my horizons now. I had hoped the direction I was taking was a good one, but it was a risk.

Fast forward through until December 2015. I was deep into my Media gig now. My city was also a short time away from being given the baton to lead our Country on the front of Culture. As a student primary living in the city centre I oversaw the massive changes my city was undertaking. Our council ripping away the soul of my city piece by piece. The paving was gone, orange barriers surrounded the shops in the centre and fences were propped up that towered over each path you walked through. As you can imagine uproar spread throughout the people of Hull. Why was this operation starting now and not back when we won the bid? A lot of questions were raised.

Being me, I tried to defend my city but fell into the majority group where even I was criticising the revamp. At media I was constantly being debated by people on why this culture year would even matter. What good is it going to do? Why not spend money on the things that matter? People brought up problems such as homelessness, unemployment and empty outlets. I grew frustrated inside that my fellow citizens couldn’t be patient enough to wait until the year in question was upon us. Every city has the problems that were raised to me. I knew one thing was assured though, if the year that was in front of us turned out to be a resounding success then these problems should be able to sort themselves out with the influx of money flooding into the local area. At this point it was all hearsay. All speculation. The only example of what to expect came from a town in Ireland called Derry. The first bearer of the title UK City of Culture. They enjoyed some success but they themselves knew they were handpicked and the true first City of Culture would be the proceeding city to follow them.

So the big changes happened through the summer of 2016 and indeed the months leading up to 2017, my city had gone through a face lift. Our new theatre was being redevelop. Plans for a Hull Area were finalised, and construction was imminent. Hilton also promised a new hotel would be in Hull before 2018. You would think this having three important events like the ones mention would change the minds and the general consensus of Hull citizens, right? Wrong. Again, each amendment to the local area was met with criticism. The Hull Area is too small! Why is the reconstruction of the new theatre blue, it’s horrid. Hilton coming to Hull. That’ll last long, NOT! I grew tired of hearing the same thoughts. But after sitting down and thinking about these strong convictions. I realised Hull people are so passionate about their city that seeing change and new life was alien to them. Now I want to stress not all people from Hull bash our city, if that was the case then this great opportunity beckoning would have been a distant memory fast.

The pillars of success

I’m only talking from my personal experience, with me being a nineteen-year-old male. I’m usually amongst teens similar age to me whose parents have drummed into them that Hull has no jobs, no prospects and that the only way to succeed is to leave and venture afar. At least that’s what I got told from my family. I used to hear stories of the glory days in Hull in the 60’s and 70’s.

How ‘Hessle Road’ was the place to be in them days. As I mention Hull people are passionate. We are also resilient and determined. You won’t see a better representation of these qualities than thee ‘Hessle Road’. People on this road old and young get on with life. They stare adversity in the face every day but still find a way to carry on. The strong-willed nature of these people is why I knew come 2017 and when the big year was here, they and I would be ready.

As the summer of 2016 past the city was starting blossom. The realisation that me and everyone else were on the precipice of something great struck me. I knew I wanted to be part of the year, that I believed would be the ‘revival’ of this city but I wasn’t sure how to get involved internally. As for me personally though, my summer was filled with joy as well, I’d just come off a great year at media. Being awarded Student of the year the key highlight. My local rugby team had also just won the Challenge Cup at Wembley for the first time. Come September 2016 I was in high spirts. Induction week at media was here. The last induction week the year before was nothing to write home about and I wasn’t expecting anything big for this one. But something changed, we had been told about a guest speaker coming in to talk to us, someone who had previously been on the media course years ago. This random day at college changed it all for me.

The guest in question was a polish guy who came to talk our group about his dealings in the media industry. He talked about how he travelled the world volunteering at the Olympics and Eurovision. How these adventures shaped him to the person he is today. I was inspired and enthralled by what he’d encountered. I wanted these same experiences but how could I achieve any of this. I don’t have the money or the means to reach such things. That’s when he brought up Hull City of Culture volunteering scheme. He mentioned how they’re taking applicants. This was my chance, a way to give back to this great city. A foot in the door you could say. Ironically if accepted this would be my first job as well. After coming home that day I got straight online and completed my application form. I remember telling my mam how excited I was.

Once that day was over. I never heard anything back for a while. I carried on working hard at media, my city continued to build and the days till 2017 grew closer. The paving that had taken all year was almost complete. Walking home through the train station I started to notice banners propped up high above us with the logo of the culture bid on them. Blue suited people were coming up to me gifting me a programme detailing all the fun and festivities that were going to happen very soon. The key bit of information I picked up on these was that the brochure given to me said season one. This peaked my interest. At home I researched online relating to this topic to find that as part of next year, they would be four seasons of culture. Reading through the book further an interesting date presented itself to me.

The fun starts now

January 1st, 2017. IN WITH A BANG. Hull to kick off the year would hold a firework show which would be ticketed. These tickets were already sold out before I could even think about buying one. No to worry though as getting a good vantage point instantly crossed my mind. The stage was Marina. This day was mere weeks away. I had one assignment to go at college. My tutor sat us all down and read out our brief. We needed to create a media product on a topic given to us. My group consisted of me and a friend called Jordan. One group got Vinyl, which I’m happy we dodged. Another got Film and TV. I wouldn’t have minded that subject, but we moved on. Our turn was next. What would we get? Our tutor turned his chair and bellowed the words city of culture year.

Wow! After many assignments had come and gone this would be my first on the year I had anticipated so much. We chose to make a podcast on our thoughts with Jordan being the judicator for our discussion. Listing to the podcast now makes me cringe. The audio was bad and the conversation lacked direction but still listening to what I and others thought about the year we was about to have was interesting to me. This was me talking without having any existing knowledge of what would happen. I was on the cusp of having the best year of my life and I didn’t even know it. Come January I had my media exams. As you can guess I was stressed out but knew these tests were necessary in getting me to where I wanted to be. I attended IN WITH A BANG. Special night which I shared with my mam. Hull did indeed start with a BANG. The following week was the ‘Made in Hull’ light show.

This event was truly spectacular. Seeing our proud history being elevated onto the city hall and around Victoria square was magical. From the blitz to the fishing era to our sporting team’s success. The entire show filled me with pride. It also gave me a lump in my throat. To see my city being showed under the spotlight like this was great. I only wish that my grandma and grandad could have seen this.They were a massive part of my life growing up. This culture year is here because of their hard work all them years ago. They were the ones picking up the pieces after the devastation of WW2. I will always love them to the moon and back.

This made me even more determined to make this year a memorable one for me and the people around me. This meant giving this volunteering gig my all. So, the time came when I eventually got a response back. I had been accepted in the programme. I now needed to attend an interview to choses what kind of shifts I wanted then some basic training. Unfortunately for me the dates they gave were right when Hull FC were playing. With the Rugby season starting I was left with a choice. Go to Rugby or go to my interview and training. After much careful thought I chose the latter option. I made myself a promise that I would make the most of this opportunity for not only me but for my grandma and grandad who aren’t here to enjoy this special year.

Calm before the storm

My interview went swimmingly. My training besides a few hiccups in regard to travelling went smoothly. Engaging in group work for my training was quite moving for me. Peoples reasons for joining the scheme were simple. We all wanted to give back to the city that gave so much to us. Getting into bed that night, I knew I’d made the right decision. This year was going to be epic. I had signed up to wave three, so my deployment stage was April. My training finished at the end of February. The next few months every blue suited person or Hull volunteer I saw, I would always say to my friends that’s going to be me soon.

I was excited beyond belief. Finally, April 10th rolls around. My big day is here. But on my Better impact page where I claim my shifts nothing came up. I felt I’d reached an anti-climax. Confusion set in, but I bided my time. Let’s crack on with media I thought. It’ll soon settle itself out. Eventually it did. Shifts started to pop up. I scrolled up and down and one peaked my interest.

Marketing support. Leafleting for a play on Marina. It was a bit out the way on the 1st of June but it was a start. The month was May. Four weeks to wait. Media at this point was winding down for the year. Exams had come and gone. Assignments drying up. The following months would end up being the best months of my life. I went to my first shift nervous but excited. I loved it. I had the pleasure of being paired up with this older gentleman who had showered me with kindness throughout the full day. I loved it and I was hooked from there. At home most of my time consisted of refreshing my opportunities page waiting for that right shift for me. I wanted anything where I’m promoting something and interacting with the public. Low and behold a shift finally popped up.

Realising the years potential

A beach festival in Bridlington called ‘Tidal waves’. Straight away I signed up to it. Didn’t hesitate, saw festival and I was already down for it. The date for it was the 10th June. A Saturday. All week I prayed for good weather. I couldn’t sleep the night before because of excitement for the following day. I woke up 9am the morning of my shift. Got my gear and was driven by my mams partner to the event. The trip there was not without its shenanigans though. Turns out the morning I wanted to go to ‘Brid’ or Bridlington. The only road into Brid from Hull was closed because of an unfortunate accident. Trust it to happen on the day I wanted to go. I was already pushing my luck with the time as well. We set off at 11am. My shift was for 12pm. You could say we was a bit strapped for time.

I was dreading being late on this day as I thought it would jeopardise me for future shifts. I NEEDED to be on time for this! So here’s me barking orders to me and my mams partner Gill saying hurry up and go here and there while having no actual clue of what am on about. We were going around in circles. I kept messaging on this public volunteer group that we’re stuck, and we needed help. Thankfully someone directed us to chicken lane but we flipping went on turkey lane didn’t we. I’m telling my mam its turkey lane she’s going crazy shouting turkey lane, chicken lane, what’s the bleeding difference. At this point we’re going up this steep road which leads to a dead-end. I thought it would be a good idea to pull a little gag on my mam so I said oh no we’ve gone down the wrong lane we need to be on bacon lane. As you guessed floods of obscenities were hurled at me. We made our down the lanes and seemed to be making good progress, the same couldn’t be said for the time. I eventually arrived at my shift 1 hour late. But by the sheer luck, the festival was delayed one hour to compensate for the traffic problems.

I said goodbye to my mam and set out to have one of the best shifts of my volunteering year. The day was full of dancing, singing and having fun. At first, I was a bit nervous to be myself. I quickly let my guard down though as I was paired with a great group of people who were acting just as crazy as I wanted to be.

As soon as I realised this I jumped right into the fun and doing this allowed me to interact with the festival-goers easier. The shift became less about work and more about enjoying myself. I lost track of time and lived for the moment. Now normally in public I don’t mind talking someone’s ear off but dancing or being erratic in front of strangers I always stayed clear of in fear of being judged wrongly. I always thought revealing this side of me would change people’s perceptions of me but at this festival I felt at home and relaxed. No one cared which I loved. Come home time, I was on happy pills. My mam couldn’t believe it. I said to her ‘mam today I went on an adventure and I loved every minute of it’.

Upon coming home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the day. This is what I wanted to do for a living, work festivals or entertain people in some way. The following months went by. I finished up at media. Enjoyed my birthday. I was still waiting for that one shift which would eclipse Tidal waves. Well wasn’t I was in for a treat. It just so happened that a shift called the ‘Edinburgh takeover’ came up on my BI opportunities page. At first glance I scuffed at the idea. Clicking on the shift it said the whole day would last nineteen hours. A nineteen-hour shift, instantly I closed the tab and went about my day. But then I thought well why we going to Scotland, they must be a reason. I did some digging and stumbled across a site detailing about the fringe festival and how it’s the biggest festival in Europe. Knowing this you couldn’t get me on that site fast enough. To my surprise places were still available, I jumped on that. It sunk in, I’m going to Edinburgh and I’m doing a NINTEEN hour shift. What is life?

I'm going on an adventure!

I told my mam straight after, she had so many questions but the one thing she did say is I’m beating her to the punch. She’s always wanted to go to Scotland for family reasons. Here’s me just casually dropping I’m going and she’s been wanting to go for number of years. The stage was set though. I knew this day would emulate ‘Brid’. The days and weeks went by. The night before I had to play an American Football game. It was an away day at Shropshire. I was dreading it, I went the full game pussy footing around, so I didn’t get injured. Nothing was going to ruin my big day tomorrow. I did indeed make it back to hull in one piece and got home for 8pm. Travelling took its toll on me though. I crashed out 9pmish. I needed to be up for 4am. I admittedly relied on my mam to sort my outfit out and packing up. She was the unsung hero propping me up every shift and outing I had.

Thankfully I had a decent sleep and woke for the first ring on my alarm. I was ready. My body was alert. I sprung out of bed. My mam got up as well to help me. She looked a bit worse for wear whereas I was bouncing off the walls getting myself hyped and excited. Judging by me you wouldn’t think it was 4am in the morning. My stuff was packed and after a big hug from my mam I set off. The last words I said to her was I’m going on an adventure. I felt like Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit. This was my journey across middle earth. My time to shine. It was also my city’s time to shine. All two hundred and fifty of us attending today were ambassadors for Hull. Let’s do our city proud. I skipped my way to the meeting point. Getting there I found many coaches and many unsavoury faces. Again, to reiterate it was 4am in the morning. I got in amongst the hoard of blue coats. The air was brisk. I waned my excitement down though in fear I might burn myself out. One quick photo op then we departed on the coaches. My partner for the journey was a fine gentleman called Phil.

We quickly got on like a house on fire. Our conversation spanned right until our first stop in Durham. We spoke of our fondness for Politics, Tea and our City. He spoke of his troubles in his life as did I. It’s true every person alive has a story to tell. The things he told me enlighten me. To get a completely different outlook on life in the form of his life story was a great past time. The journey to Scotland took six hours. Near to the end of our journey my ass was numb. I’d never faced a challenge like it. The roads were never ending. Travelling up there, we all was given leaflets, maps and a challenge to see how many Edinburgh monuments we could get a snap of, more on that later though. Minus the numbing pain in my ass, I quite enjoyed my trip up north to Edinburgh. The scenery was unique. I finally got to see the majestic Angel of the North. I can now tick that off my to do list.

When we got to into Edinburgh, they were just masses of people everywhere. I was often told in the lead up to me going, Edinburgh is quite steep. I was witnessing this phenomenon first hand. The amount of times the driver when up and down this hill trying to find a suitable parking spot was ridiculous. The craziness started when we stopped. The lead volunteer at the front spoke of a few things, I was too busy trying to cram in them leaflets and posters I was given earlier into my purple backpack. The doors then opened, and everyone started flooding out onto the street then there’s me… still trying to fit everything in my bag. I was the last one on the bus. The lead volunteer was trying to hurry me to get off. In the end I gave up and I carried them by my side. I jumped off the bus and here I was in Edinburgh. I saw a trail of blue heads, so I just followed them.

Normally you would think following a line of blue people would be distinctive but remember people this is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Anything weird and wacky goes. Anyways I’m following our group, we get to this certain zone where the national media want to take our photo. Now imagine the chaos of just stepping off a bus from a six-hour coach journey then getting off and being ushered half a mile to this secluded zone, then being asked to form the word ‘HULL’ with our bodies. P-U-R-E insanity. Two hundred and fifty volunteers doing there best to spell out ‘HULL’ while being barked at by various people on this balcony. It was nothing short of a bloody nightmare. We did eventually end up fulfilling our task after much pushing and shoving. The magic of our trip was in danger of breaking out into a royal rumble of volunteers scraping. To my displeasure this didn’t happen. We spelled out ‘HULL’, gave our best smiles and got the photo op done. Now after we had more walking to our hub area for the day. A few talks at this beautiful hotel then we got assigned our group.

My group was the Maureen Lipman team. I had a look around and if I’m being honest, I thought I pulled the short straw with this group. My team looked too sleepy and weathered from the day already. But I noticed this kid who kept trying to catch my attention. His name happened to be Shaun, my partner for the day. First glance at him, I thought ‘oh god here we go’ I’m stuck with boring people for the rest of my trip (Quick side note, I love my volunteers but sometimes few can match my energy I want to bring to shifts). My group and I left the hotel (hub area) and made our way through Edinburgh. Me and Shaun talked a bit during this walk, I soon started to think, maybe this guy is alright, maybe this trip will be quite fun after all. My hook up was I didn’t want to be around people who seemed fake.

I wanted to be with a team who didn’t care about what they said or did. Obviously, we here to do a job but I wanted to have fun with it and have the day filled with humour. I realised I found the perfect people when a lovely called Michelle requested to join me and Shaun for the day. She straight away said ‘look I picked you two because it seems both of you have got your heads screwed on and the rest are bit dozy’. Now! I knew I’d have fun. When we got to our designated post. Our supposed job was to give out the leaflets, we did a little, but Shaun suggested to Michelle that there’s a Hard Rock Café nearby, so we NEED to see that instead!

Hard Rock shenanigans

I heard this and said ‘a café, hmmmm I wonder if they sell tea’. These two heard this and looked puzzled. I would soon know why. Shaun got his google maps out and we set out a mission to find Hard Rock. Street after street we went. I was still thinking why the name ‘hard rock café’. What’s the gimmick? Well we found it. The faces on these two was infectious, they were both so excited. I stopped them and said you do know I don’t have a clue about this place. Michelle jaw dropped. “you’ve never been to a Hard Rock?” she said.

“No” I murmured. She then grabbed my hand and whisked me inside. A tall gentleman was standing at the front desk. He must have been well over 6ft plus he had a godly afro. Michelle said to this guy that I’ve been never been to a Hard Rock before and would it be possible if she could take me on a tour around the café.

He happily obliged but I don’t think he had much choice in the matter. Michelle was on a mission. Just imagine two people dressed head to toe in blue trapping through this café gawking at the frames on the walls. I’m not a massive fan of rock but the things I saw and the whole atmosphere was amazing. Where had this been all my life?

Once the tour was over I thanked Michelle and we looked for Shaun. As expected he was in the shop still in awe of all the apparel. Michelle bought me my first pin at the shop. She told me that hard rocks gimmick are these pins and special pins can also be found around the world. I couldn’t have been more thankful to her. Shaun managed to sweet talk this cashier and we got free wristbands. I left Hard Rock a changed man. I wanted to visit more of these. We got back onto our standard job of providing leaflets. We challenged ourselves to get the most. Challenged accepted, I got my marketing head on and got to work. Two hundred leaflets and posters vanished from my bag within an hour.

It was so much fun being around Michelle and Shaun. We met some crazy people on the fringe, saw Darth Vader chilling outside a fruit store and even got a tour of some notable Harry potter establishments. Remember when I told you about that challenge to capture a photo of Edinburgh monuments, well I told them two about and Shaun said I’m not leaving this city until we’ve been to them all. So, we whizzed here, there and everywhere snapping shots of all of us, mainly me in front of the requested locations. So much fun. I loved it. The day went so quick though. I remember no sooner getting off the bus then getting back on it. Edinburgh was special for me. To think I was sceptical of Shaun at the start of the day to then enjoying every minute of his company. It was testament to how special the day was.

Reflection

Meeting so many amazing people and sharing that moment with Michelle and Shaun was great. Getting back on the bus after ransacking the dinner tray was also a fun moment. Before we were due to get on the bus home, a lead volunteer bellowed out if anyone wanted these left-over dinner bags filled with food. I said I’ll have one. One turned into two then three. I thought screw it let me just grab as many as I can. The woman looked at me and said, ‘they all for you mister?’. ‘No madam, a guy on my bus hasn’t eaten all day they’re for him’. Not sure to this day how I got away with it. I literally looked mental. Five…bags… on each…arm. Long story short, in every bag I took the chocolate bar and that’s it.

Sadly, with how great this shift was I never worked a shift that lived up to the drama and the excitement of that famous day. Don’t get me wrong I still had fun, but I couldn’t encapsulate that feeling again of the Edinburgh Takeover. As of me writing this my time as a volunteer has come to an end. My moments impersonating a blue smurf are over. Life in 2017 taught me so many things. Live for the moment, take risks and always keep looking ahead to that next great day you’ll have. There’s no doubt I’ll have many more awesome Edinburgh like days in the future but I and you reading this have got to work towards them. These opportunities I had didn’t come to me, I went to them. People made my 2017 special. Hull made my 2017 special.

The chapter of city of culture has ended now and with that my journey turns onto a new page. This story all started back in 2015 and culminated at the end of 2017. I was part of this story. Now its time for us to be part of the next.

God speed L Ethan

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