The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has unveiled plans for a new cultural competition for UK towns, which will run alongside the existing City of Culture programme.
Bradford district is currently celebrating its City of Culture 2025, but details for the next iteration in 2029 are yet to be confirmed. Wrexham in Wales has already thrown its hat in the ring with plans to bid for the honour, but details including a timeframe have yet to be confirmed by the government.
DCMS says it will provide more details about City of Culture 2029 and the new UK Town of Culture competition later this autumn. However, it confirmed that the latter will see multiple towns competing to win the title and deliver a cultural programme.
The winning town will “boost pride in place by shining a spotlight on multiple towns and enabling them to tell their unique story”, DCMS said in a statement.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Today we’re launching a brand new competition to recognise the UK Town of Culture to celebrate the creativity, history and identity that has made us such a vibrant, diverse and incredible country. While we know that talent and imagination is everywhere, opportunity is not.”
Alongside the new competition, Nandy also gave more details about the £150m Creative Places Growth Fund, first announced in the summer, which will support creative businesses in Liverpool, Manchester, North East England, the West of England, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire. The funding will be split equally across the regions over three years starting next April.