PEOPLE are being invited to make their mark on next week's Freedom Festival in the delicate shape of hundreds of white bone china roses.
The hand-made flowers are set to form a temporary art installation along the route of The Long Walk To Freedom, a special trail being created between the Old Town and the Tidal Barrier.
It takes its name from the title of Nelson Mandela's autobiography and has been chosen to commemorate both Mandela and Hull's famous anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce, who was the original inspiration for the annual festival.
Planting will take place along the route on the Sunday afternoon of the festival after a series of free workshops where people are being invited to make their own rose.
Tomorrow will see the first of four free workshops being held at the Studio Eleven gallery in Humber Street.
Project organiser Adele Howitt, who also runs the gallery, said: "Each flower will be unique and as individual as the person who has made it, making each Freedom message more poetic.
"Together, the flowers will make a temporary art installation around the Old Town and Fruit Market, marking the long walk to freedom in a union of strength and hope.
"The flowers will remain as unfired clay and will eventually be taken back into the earth without detriment to the environment."
She said anyone should be able to make a flower.
"It will take about ten minutes and it's quite an easy technique to learn.
"In similar projects in the past I've found that people who make cakes are usually quite good because their icing skills come to the fore, but anyone can have a go."
The Long Walk To Freedom will be unveiled on the opening evening of the Freedom Festival on Friday night.
It has been devised as a trail of light with eight artists showcasing specially-commissioned artwork installations along the route.
A festival spokesman said: "Along the light trail, Mandela's greatest moments and achievements, re-imagined as installations of light, colour and sounds, will be played out on the cobbles of Hull's Old Town.
"Audio-visual installations, dynamic interplays of light and shadow and a 75m mural created by ten graffiti artists will all feature as the trail winds its way from Hull's Museum Quarter."
The Freedom Flame – a Dutch flame symbolising the end of the country's occupation during the Second World War – will be used to officially mark the opening of the light trail and the launch of the festival at dusk in the Mandela Peace Gardens in High Street.
Street theatre performers Spark! will then lead crowds along the trail through the Old Town to a stage near Hull Marina for a show featuring DJs and fireworks.
• The flower-making workshop takes place from 11am to 4pm.
More free workshops will be held at the venue on Friday and Saturday, from noon to 4pm, and on Sunday, from noon to 3pm.
The flowers will then be planted along the route of the trail from 3pm on the Sunday afternoon.
Lighting the wayEight specially commissioned artworks are set to light up the opening night of the Freedom Festival.
They will all be based along The Long Road To Freedom trail, which will wind from the Old Town Museums' Quarter to the Fruit Market area near the city's waterfront.
The works range from giant illuminated doves to a 75m mural along a specially-created billboard in High Street paying tribute to Nelson Mandela.
Several short animated films made by 80 primary school pupils from across the city will also be screened outdoors in the Museums Quarter area.
Bransholme-born artist Debi Keable will showcase her screen-print works in an installation in High Street.
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