From cutting edge art to Mary Poppins, our fine city enjoyed an array of cultural treats in 2016. Arts correspondent Emma Knights looks at some highlights.
BRITISH ART SHOW 8
Cutting edge art came to the city in the summer as Norwich Castle and Norwich University of the Arts hosted British Art Show 8. More than 20,000 people enjoyed the Hayward Touring show which celebrated the country's leading role in the international art scene and featured 42 artists' work. The show, which ran until September, arrived in style in June, when the artworks were delivered by heavy horses as part of artist Alan Kane's The History Train.
MARY POPPINS
Audiences enjoyed a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time when the Disney and Cameron Mackintosh musical Mary Poppins flew into Norwich Theatre Royal for five weeks from the end of June.
Other Theatre Royal highlights included Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play For The Nation - which featured Norwich company The Common Lot and Sprowston High pupils - and National Theatre of Scotland's trilogy The James Plays.
FESTIVE FUN
A wild west-themed Jack and the Beanstalk starring Wayne Sleep has been delighting audiences at Norwich Theatre Royal this Christmas and runs until January 15, meanwhile The Garage presented a production of Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel was at Norwich Puppet Theatre. Roald Dahl classic George's Marvellous Medicine was the Maddermarket Theatre's festive show.
NORFOLK AND NORWICH FESTIVAL
Highlights of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in May included a flooded production of The Tempest at Great Yarmouth Hippodrome, young singer-songwriters performing Wild Life at Norwich Playhouse, and circus show White Nights at the Adnams Spiegeltent.
Norwich Philharmonic Society celebrated its 175th anniversary by staging Mahler Symphony of a Thousand at the Norfolk Showground Arena.
One of the highlights of the City of Literature programme led by Writers' Centre Norwich was First World War anniversary commission Fierce Light.
Other brilliant festivals in 2016 include Young Norfolk Arts Festival, Norwich Sound and Vision and Noirwich Crime Writing Festival.
THE HOSTRY FESTIVAL AND PAINT OUT NORWICH
King Lear In New York was the Hostry Festival's headline show at Norwich Cathedral's Hostry in October.
Other highlights included a new Total Ensemble Theatre Company performance and the Hostry Festival/Mustard TV project Never Too Late.
Paint Out Norwich saw more than 30 artists take part in the open air art competition that celebrates the city in paint, meanwhile stars of the arts were honoured at the Norfolk Arts Awards, with EDP People's Choice Awards accolades going to Cinema City, Sheringham Little Theatre and The Nimmo Twins.
NORWICH FASHION WEEK
Norwich Fashion Week saw all the latest looks from talented local designers take to the catwalk in March.
A new addition to the annual event - created in 2010 to celebrate Norwich's growing fashion scene - was the Norwich Fashion Jam which saw a mountain of stock donated by Age UK Norwich transformed into creative collections for a show at Norwich Castle.
LORD MAYOR'S CELEBRATION
Norwich's streets were full of festivities for the Lord Mayor's Celebration in July.
The Lord Mayor's Street Procession saw more than 70 floats weave their way through the city. Other highlights included The Common Lot's production 1549: The Story of Kett's Rebellion, fireworks from Norwich Castle and the Great Norwich Duck Race.
STAGE TWO
Norwich gained a new education and performing arts venue when Norwich Theatre Royal's Stage Two opened at the end of the summer.
The ambitious £3m learning and participation centre - which is the Theatre Royal arts courses' new home - aims to provide a huge boost to the theatre's work in education while also offering more opportunities for people of all ages.
FIJI: ART AND LIFE IN THE PACIFIC
It was a grand affair for the opening of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts' exhibition Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacific in October. It is the world's largest exhibition about Fiji and Fijian art, and the president of the South Pacific island nation, His Excellency Major-General (Ret'd) Jioji Konousi Konrote, visited to open the show. Lord Sainsbury and Sir David Attenborough also attended. The exhibition runs until February 12.
OPEN AIR CONCERTS
More than 20,000 Rod Stewart fans enjoyed seeing the music legend rock Carrow Road in June when he kicked off his tour at Norwich City Football Club. Meanwhile Norwich-based Outside Live hosted two open-air concerts at Taverham Hall - the West End spectacle Beyond The Barricade in July and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra's John Williams Soundtrack Spectacular in August.
NORWICH MEDIEVAL MYSTERY PLAYS
The Norwich Medieval Mystery Plays presented five centuries-old plays for modern day audiences in Norwich Castle's keep in August. The production featured a mini cycle of plays going from Creation through to Noah's Ark, adapted from the N-Town Cycle and the only remaining Norwich mystery play – The Grocer's Play – which is Paradyse: The Fall of Man.
OLIVE EDIS
Thousands have been enjoying Fishermen & Kings: The Photography of Olive Edis at Norwich Castle.
Ms Edis, who had studios in Sheringham, was one of the most important photographers of the first half of the 20th century and the first-ever accredited female war photographer. She took pictures of everything from First World War battlefields to royalty to north Norfolk fishermen. The exhibition runs until January 22.
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