Two regional journalists stripped naked and were painted blue as part of an artwork involving thousands of people.

Ian Midgley and Faye Preston, of the Hull Daily Mail, were among those to take part in the ‘Sea of Hull’ project, in which more than 3,000 people participated.

The Mail itself had 10 people, including Ian and Faye, involved in covering Saturday’s event, held at various locations across Hull to mark its status of 2017 UK City of Culture.

The newspaper ran a front page wraparound featuring the ‘sea’ in yesterday’s edition, pictured below, while the event was extensively covered online over the weekend.

Coverage on the Mail’s website from Friday to Sunday generated 450,000 page views and a cumulative Facebook reach of 1.49m.

Data analytics showed its Sea of Hull posts on social media platforms were shared 24,000 times, twice as many as the top articles from the BBC and Guardian.

Deputy editor Jamie Macaskill said: “The team did fantastic job covering one of the biggest events in Hull’s recent history.

“It also showed where online makes a real impact. In days gone by we would have pulled everything together for Monday’s paper, 48-hours after the event.

“But our online coverage started at 2.30am on Saturday as people started gathering for the event. This then developed with live updates, video, first-person reports and stunning photographs and pic features as the day progressed. The stats speak for themselves.

“To top it off with a striking wrap on Monday capped a great weekend. We have City of Culture arriving in 2017 with scores of major events throughout the year. This coverage showed what an opportunity that is and how well our staff can respond.”