POET and playwright Lemn Sissay will read Dr Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech on its 50th anniversary in the opening torchlight procession of the 2013 Freedom Festival in Hull on Friday, September 6.

“It’s an honour to be reciting Martin Luther King’s truly ground-breaking words, which have played such a pivotal part in the freedom of individuals around the world and still have so much impact 50 years on,” says Lemn.

“It’s going to be a very special moment at the festival, and I’m looking forward to being part of the celebrations.”

The festival is in its sixth year, having been established in Hull – one of only four cities in the running to be UK City of Culture 2017 – as part of the 200th anniversary commemorations of the abolition of the British Empire slave trade, led by Hull MP William Wilberforce.

Launched in 2007 to explore and celebrates the concept of freedom and encourage people to “free their imaginations”, Hull’s premier cultural showcase drew 75,000 people last year.

This year’s event runs from September 6 to 8 in Hull’s Fruit Market cultural quarter and surrounding areas and features French street theatre pioneers Transe Express; Manchester band The 1975; MOBO award-winning, electro-punk rapper Akala; the Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show; BalletLORENT and the Black Eagles among its prominent acts.

Look out too for young British jazz band Empirical, playing the first date of a European tour to promote their newly released fourth album, Tabula Rasa; Dan Croll’s folk-inspired electronic pop; Edinburgh band Shooglenifty’s “techno ceilidh”; Hull musician Sam Gray; indie pop band Theme Park; and York folkies Blackbeard’s Tea Party.

Hull hero Mick Ronson, David Bowie’s gilded guitarist in The Spiders From Mars, will be remembered in Ziggy, a Ziggy Stardust exhibition of never-seen-before photography and fans’ memorabilia from the 1970s at the Museum of Club Culture gallery.

Transe Express like to play in open spaces, practise “intervention theatre” and create “celestial art” in performances that involve 100 actors, acrobats, bell ringers, dancers, percussionists, singers, string quartets, technicians and… welders”.

In Hull, they will give an exclusive UK showcase of Les Tambours de la Muerte, a fusion of dance, fire, music and skeletons.

The Black Eagles trio from Tanzania will display gravity-defying acrobatics honed on the streets of Dar-Es-Salaam from the age of six.

Comedy trio Pappy’s, stars of BBC3’s Badults, will headline Freedom’s comedy tent with their sketches, songs and silliness, while Hull comedian Lucy Beaumont will present her new Edinburgh Fringe show.

BalletLORENT promise “passionate couple dances, wallflower solos and exuberant ensemble dancing” in their 20th anniversary show, inspired by two of their most-loved pieces, The Ball and La Nuit Intime.

The principal theatre event will be Jumpers For Goalposts, a touching comedy about love, friendship and five-a-side football by Hull writer Tom Wells. Set in Hull, the Paines Plough production is coming home to Hull Truck Theatre from today until September 14. In The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey, a group of puppeteers, designers and musicians will be on stage throughout a live animation show in which pen and ink artwork is manipulated in real time and projected on to the big screen.

The pick of the spoken word events will be Polarbear’s Mouth Open, Story Jump Out, Steven Camden’s interactive story-telling show from Battersea Arts Centre for young audiences, and artist Michael Barnes-Wynters, alias Barney Doodlebug, who will be holding a street art masterclass.

• For festival show dates and times, visit freedomfestival.co.uk