Hull has been announced as the winner of the UK's City of Culture 2017 this morning.

The announcement follows almost a year of hard work from people and organisations across Hull in putting together a powerful bid. Eleven cities originally entered and Hull achieved Candidate City status in being shortlisted in June along with Swansea Bay, Leicester and Dundee. Hull was revealed as the overall winner today following the submission of a strong final bid document in September and a presentation in Derry-Londonderry last week.

Councillor Stephen Brady, Leader of Hull City Council, said: "We are absolutely thrilled to be the next City of Culture for the UK and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other Candidate Cities who also submitted exceptionally strong bids - the standard of the competition was exceptional."

Hull's bid demonstrated how much the city wanted, needed and was ready to deliver the UK City of Culture 2017 title. The city will now deliver a spectacular programme for 2017 that will deliver artistic excellence and events on scale never seen before in the city - and will entice visitors from the whole of the UK and beyond. Inspired by Larkin's poem 'Days' the ambition is for each day of Hull 2017 to make a difference to a life in the city, the UK and the world. Hull2017 programme highlights include

• An extraordinary opening ceremony that will involve four 'rivers' of light, people and sound flowing into the city involving 3,000 volunteers. During the event, elephants will walk the streets of Hull again alongside lost trawlermen, dancing white phone boxes and images of Hull's rich past and creative future.

• an aerial spectacular - with Director of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony, Mark Murphy, and outdoor arts company Walk the Plank - that would form part of Hull's 2017 Freedom Festival. The event will incorporate ground-breaking design, breath-taking aerial choreography, an evocative live music score and jaw-dropping fireworks to tell the world Hull's story - all framed by the city's iconic tidal barrier. The theme of the event aims to honour one of Hull's most famous alumni Philip Larkin and embody one of his immortal lines: "What will survive of us is love."

• an environmental legacy. Artist-designed gateways and pictorial meadows will form a major feature of Hull's green agenda for 2017 with thousands of trees planted to form sustainable gateways to the city.

• Sonic Lumiere - a stadium event featuring Durham Marenghi, Hull's award-winning lighting designer, working with 500 dancers in a digital sound and light concert on the theme of illusion and fairs

It is estimated that being the UK City of Culture 2017 will deliver a £60million boost to the local economy in 2017 alone. The title is also anticipated to leave a lasting legacy creating a more vibrant, sustainable cultural sector; improved quality of life for local people and increased access to tourism and cultural sector jobs.

Councillor Brady added: "Winning the title today is a real game-changer for Hull. It will give Hull a platform to tell the world what this great city has to offer, transform perceptions and accelerate our journey to make Hull prime visitor destination. Hull should be proud of what it has achieved together."

Hull's 2017 programme will follow a number of themes to celebrate the city including Roots and Routes, Made in Hull, Freedom and Quirky. The proposed programme will include 15 national and international commissions, 12 artists' residencies; 25 festivals; eight major community participation projects; a programme of conferences and major broadcasting events; plus programming activity across 365 days with an estimated 1,500 special events.

During the bidding process the support for Hull's bid has been exceptional: online supporters now number over 16,000; the Twitter campaign has trended UK-wide six times during the process; a film that captures the aspirations and passion of the people of Hull that was played to the judges as part of the final presentation has been seen by over 70,000 people in under a week; and the bid's initial private-sector sponsorship target has been exceeded with 22 sponsor companies signing up as Hull 2017 Angels.

Councillor Brady concluded: "Our programme though locally rooted is global in outlook and has been developed with support from local people, businesses and cultural organisations. The support the bid has received from the city has been phenomenal. We would urge people to keep following Hull's cultural journey via media, social media and public events to find out how they can be involved in the next stage. As with the bidding process, local people and organisations are absolutely central to Hull 2017."

For further details on Hull's UK City of Culture programme and how to get involved people can visit www.hullcc.gov.uk/2017Hull , follow via Twitter @2017Hull or like the Hull City of Culture Facebook page.