The Awakening was the official opening event for the LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture, taking place at Headingley Stadium on 7 January 2023. Tickets were allocated using a ballot process which required those who wished to attend to share an artwork. These artworks ranged from photography to paintings and more, engaging people across the city of all ages.
As part of The Awakening, there were also two call outs inviting people to take part in the show: ‘Leeds on Wheels’ and ‘Dancers of Leeds’. In total 141 people took part in these two opportunities. Details about applications can be found on
the call outs metrics page.
Headlines
Awakening attendees
5,102
Total number of attendees based on ticket usage.
Awakening tickets claimed
9,320
Total number of tickets booked.
Seats allocated
10,926
Total number of seats allocated based on individual and group entries received.
Ballot entries
2,421
Total number of ballot entries individual and group received.
Page updated: February 5th, 2024
Attendees at the The Awakening
In the first visualisation, each hexagon represents a council ward in Leeds. In the second, each hexagon represents a local authority
within the Leeds City Region. The chart shows the distribution of attendees across the city at the Awakening based on home addresses
within these wards and local authorities. Not all attendees came from within the Leeds City Region, and these individuals are not
represented in the hexmaps below.
KEY: The hexagons that are darker in colour show areas with a higher number of entries per ward or local authority.
Count of The Awakening attendees by ward of residence
Rather than selling tickets, LEEDS 2023 invited the people of Leeds to share an artwork to enter a ballot to gain four tickets to The Awakening.
Initially the ballot was only open to individuals submitting entries.
Following feedback from schools and community groups a Group Ballot was opened on 2 November so that a teacher or community leader could
share an artwork completed by a group and this would count as one ballot entry. If successful in the ballot the entire group was awarded a
requested number of tickets to The Awakening.
The ballot was open between 23 September and 25 November.
The ballot initiative was designed to increase engagement and creativity in city and beyond for the initial event of the year.
This chart shows where individual ballot entries came from. Each hexagon represents a council ward in Leeds, and the chart
shows the distribution of ballot entrants home addresses across these wards.
KEY: The hexagons that are darker in colour show wards with a higher number of entries.
Count of individual ballot entries by ward of residence
The above hexmap shows 1539 submissions associated with postcodes that are within Leeds City Council.
In addition, there were 637 submissions from other local authorities.
76 submissions were from postcodes that could not be identified. This is either because the postcode is invalid, or potentially is not a UK postcode.
122 ballot entries were submitted without postcodes.
Entries from the Leeds City Region are shown below. Each hexagon represents a local authority in the Leeds City Region.
Count of individual ballot entries by local authority of residence
Growth in ballot entries and allocated seats over time
Cumulative counts of individual ballot entries and allocated seats
Artist ages
The chart below shows the breakdown of submissions by age of artist.
Distribution of ballot entries by age
Source
The chart below shows the the declared source that the entrant found out about the ballot.
Distribution of ballot entries by source
Known Limitations and Issues
Each individual ballot entry is allocated multiple tickets with no restrictions as to who these tickets could be shared with. As such, it is possible that the ‘Count of the Awakening Attendees’ visualisations may misallocate attendees to incorrect wards and local authorities of residence.
Some ballot entries did not have a postcode associated, as postcode was not a mandatory field for ballot entries. This was a design choice as it removes a barrier to entry for those with no fixed address. As such, those entries are impossible to map to a ward or local authority.
Each individual ballot entry is allocated up to four seats. Group ballot entries are submitted with a requested number of seats. The total number of tickets was calculated using the upper figure for individual ballot entries, combined with the explicitly requested number of group ballot seats.
Group ballot entries are not displayed in the hexmaps related to where ballot applications come from. Many of the group ballot activities were carried out in schools, and it is known that pupils often cross ward boundaries in order to attend schools.