Frayne said headlining Friday’s opening ceremony “means more than I could ever put into words”.
“To be in a place where there’s a massive stage put right in the centre for people to come and share in some amazement, that’s a dream come true, it genuinely is,” he told News beforehand.
“I’m super proud to be from Bradford. It wasn’t necessarily the easiest place to grow up… so to be a small, tiny part of this [celebration], it’s just incredible.”
The opening show, titled Rise, involved a cast of 200 including 10-year-old rapper Cruzy T plus poets, musicians and dancers alongside Frayne, with a theme of warts-and-all pride, unity, diversity and overcoming adversity.
On the two stages, scaffold towers formed stacks of boxes containing the performers, as slogans and visuals of the city and its people were projected onto the front.
Projections were also used to transform the towers into Frayne’s childhood home, with a young actor playing Frayne as a boy before the real magician enlisted the crowd to take part in a series of tricks.
The show will be staged again on Saturday.
