Subsequent to Pete Irvine’s feasibility report for a festival in Hull celebrating freedom “in all its forms”, Unique created Freedom, an exciting new festival intended to be an event unique to the city and to Yorkshire. Although Britain’s largest county has a rich variety of local festivals: literature, film, music, etc., there is no single large-scale cultural festival and Pete’s report identified a major opportunity to create an annual event, which would resonate both locally and regionally. With a limited time-frame and budget, a pilot project was launched in 2008 with the first full-scale Freedom Festival beginning in the summer of 2009. As the UK’s “city of freedom”, Hull rounded off summer 2008 with the one day pilot event on Saturday 30 August, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wilberforce, Hull’s most famous son. The main entertainment focused on the Queens Gardens with three stages, a silent disco and street theatre performances, a pop concert in Queen Victoria Square and with family entertainment in Trinity Square. Unique assembled a diverse range of companies from central and Southern France, Barcelona and Holland and worked with local organisations including The Warren, Viking Radio, the BBC and funders Hull City Council. A much more ambitious Freedom 2009 will take place from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2009, coinciding with the start of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race on the Sunday which has been brought to Hull by Yorkshire Forward. Details will be announced in early August.