Middlesbrough’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2029 has been officially submitted.
After we were announced as one of nine places on a longlist to apply for the honour earlier this year, you’ve probably seen hundreds of comments on social media which follow a similar theme:
“Don’t you have to be a city to win this?”
Well no, you don’t. Bidding isn’t restricted to cities. The government’s criteria encourages bids from larger towns.
With a population of over 150,000 people, Middlesbrough is one the biggest towns in the UK and we were chosen by judges to produce our formal bid.
Towns including Blackpool and Ipswich also made the longlist – with populations smaller than ours.
Middlesbrough has now submitted a bid “packed with hope and ambition for the future”.
Creative input from over 2,000 residents, arts and community organisations and local businesses contributed to the document sent to government on Monday.
It celebrates Middlesbrough’s role in the world from its beginnings as an industrial boomtown through to its present-day position as one of the country’s leading technological powerhouses.
The ambitious bid sets out how the ‘Made in Middlesbrough’ mentality could lead the way in developing new creative solutions that could help solve challenges facing towns and cities up and down the country.
Research has shown that the competition has led to over £1bn of investment for those places crowned City of Culture.
The previous winners – Derry, Hull, Coventry and Bradford – have all seen large economic benefits.
