BRADFORD’S competitors for the UK City of Culture 2025 title are announced today - as it’s revealed that a record 20 places have submitted bids.

Bids from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are officially in to the competition, delivered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to use culture as a catalyst for levelling up areas outside London on the cultural map.

Entrants must prove they can put culture at the heart of plans to recover from the pandemic. And for the first time the DCMS is awarding £40,000 grants to longlisted places. The 20 bidders will be reduced to a long list in coming weeks then a shortlist early 2022. The winner, announced in May 2022, will take on the baton from Coventry to be UK City of Culture 2025.

The other bidders are: Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon; Bangor and Northwest Wales; Borderlands region, comprising Dumfries and Galloway; Scottish Borders; Northumberland; Cumbria and Carlisle City; Conwy County; Cornwall; Derby; County Durham; Lancashire; Medway; Newport; Powys; Southampton; Stirling; Tay Cities region; Torbay and Exeter; Wakefield; Wolverhampton; Wrexham County Borough; Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This record number of applications is testament to the huge success of City of Culture in generating investment, creating jobs and boosting local pride. It creates a fantastic opportunity for towns and cities to build back better from the pandemic.”

Sir Phil Redmond, chair of the City of Culture Expert Advisory Panel, said: “From Derry-Londonderry to Hull and Coventry it has been a difficult and rewarding challenge to select the next UK City of Culture. The list of candidates for 2025 indicates that life in the immediate future is going to be even more challenging! The three previous title holders have demonstrated the transformative effect culture can bring about, even in places that have been ultimately unsuccessful but have gone on to develop sustainable partnerships.”

Bradford 2025 chair Shanaz Gulzar said: “It’s great to see the official list of bidding cities from around the UK. I think now more than ever, everyone acknowledges the game-changing impact winning the City of Culture contest can have both economically and culturally, and nowhere is more deserving of that than Bradford district.

"We now wait with anticipation for the announcement in September when we will hear which six cities have been longlisted.

"In the meantime, we’ve so much happening across the district with Summer Unlocked - our family-friendly programme of free cultural events which is a real showcase of the wealth of talent and creativity we have here in the district, and just a glimpse of what could be if we brought the title to Bradford.”