SHANAZ Gulzar - Chair of Bradford’s Bradford 2025 team - writes about the winning bid, and how the title will put the district on the map.

“I COME from hope, I come from Bradford!”

Iqra’s words resonate every time I think about the moment Bradford was announced as the UK City of Culture 2025.

Even as I type those words, I still get goosebumps - that roar of hope rewarded, joy and optimism echoing from Bradford, reaching every corner of the country.

We speak about the importance of telling our stories in our own way, the many communities, cultures, languages, this designation empowers us to tell them loud and proud.

Our theme ‘Welcome Home Sexy’ - that scrawl of graffiti as the train pulls into Bradford Interchange - it’s who we are; a little bit cheeky, full of humour, inviting you to see the world through our lens.

Our bid is district wide - 2025 will take place in our mills, across our hills, in our towns, in our streets and our homes.

The slogan ‘Our Time, Our Place’ forms the foundation of our bid, our pride of place never left us. We just needed the opportunity to bring our truth to life.

The established narratives don’t reflect who we are. We are renowned for diversity and of course it is complicated but also beautiful, brimming with imagination and creativity.

We have given some extraordinary artists to the world, and we are creating stars of the future too.

Bradford is the fifth largest metropolitan district and the youngest city in the UK, with thirty thousand of our young people turning 18 in 2025.

Levelling up is about the opportunities for them, for our start-ups, for our SMEs, levelling up Bradford’s performance will have the biggest impact on the UK economy.

The investment and opportunity that this brings for Bradford turbo charges our plans across all our sectors and in particular 10-year investment in culture.

Recognition of this scale helps leverage other investment, creating cross sector opportunities. It has been less than a fortnight since the announcement that we had got the title, and we can feel the interest and enthusiasm here.

We put culture at the heart of our regeneration and UK City of Culture 2025 status puts our city and our district on the map. We always knew it, everyone else just needed to catch up!

We stand tall and we stand proud to welcome folks to Bradford!