A NEW landmark river crossing in the North-East, which only opened to traffic last month, was closed over the weekend for a one-off celebration event.

Sunderland’s showpiece new Northern Spire bridge closed to vehicles late on Saturday night for 24 hours as it played host to the quirky artistic event to mark its completion.

Fittingly, off-cuts from the three-year construction process for the £117m crossing of the River Wear played a part in the event, titled: Wonderlooper.

A ticket-only experience, it was a swift sell-out as Wearsiders sought to celebrate completion of the prominent new structure in their midst.

The Wonderlooper showcase, which took place between 10am and 7pm, on Sunday, used musical kaleidescopes created from leftover materials in the bridge’s construction.

It enabled the 1,000-plus ticket-holders, who were allowed onto the bridge in hour-long slots, to view and listen to the sounds of the cable-stayed structure in a unique way.

Walking across the bridge deck, they were able to experience the bridge through the musical kaleidescopes, named Wonderloopers, giving a totally different perspective to the Northern Spire.

Rebecca Ball, creative director of Sunderland Culture, which has worked with the city council to stage the celebration, described it as, “an extraordinary” event.

“We had a fabulous response. Because of the way the event was structured we could only allow a certain number of people on at any one time.

“But, the tickets literally went over one weekend, which I think is wonderful, reflecting the excitement surrounding the bridge opening.

“People have wanted to come and see this extraordinary event.”

The Wonderloopers were the invention of artist Di Mainstone, who was commissioned by

Sunderland Culture to work with communities on both sides of the river on the IN-SPIRE project, to mark the opening of the new river crossing.

She hosted two ‘hackathon’ events, attended by musicians, engineers and technologists to help her explore different ways to, “play the bridge” and create instruments from the unused pipes.

These were the cast offs of the outer casings of the 28 cable stays which take the weight of the bridge deck.

The bridge, linking Castletown on the northern bank or the river, with Pallion, on the southern side, and its connecting link roads, were closed to both vehicles and pedestrians from 11pm on Saturday.

During that time, drivers and pedestrians wishing to cross the river were diverted via either the nearby Queen Alexandra Bridge, the Wearmouth Bridge or the A19 Hylton Bridge.