I’m delighted that we are submitting our bid for a Countywide City of Culture for 2025.
DURHAM will attract 15 million visitors, bring thousands of new jobs and see significant support to the region’s levelling up agenda if it wins its bid to be named UK City of Culture 2025, which we have submitted today.
The Joint Administration running Durham County Council has outlined plans for the bid, giving a taste of what could be in store for residents and tourists should the county be successful. My colleague Lib Dem councillor Elizabeth Scott, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development has been leading the project.
At the heart of the bid is a year-long programme of arts, culture, sport, science and economics including:
- Spectacular opening and closing events
- A 12-month celebration of Durham’s 1,300-year history of space science
- An international celebration of the bicentenary of the railways
- A travelling fair that asks ‘big’ questions about the local economy
- A series of broadcast and digital programmes taking the county and its stories into front rooms and festivals across the whole of the UK and
- Lumiere 2025 which will be bigger than ever before.
City of Culture status and the planned activities across the county would help to create a lasting legacy of jobs, new creative industries and a visitor economy that will continue to grow.
The council has today submitted its bid for the next stage of the competition with principal partner Durham University on behalf of Culture Durham – a partnership of organisations which are united by their belief in the power of culture to transform lives.
More Lib Dem successes at DCC.
