Lancashire submits bid to become City of Culture 2025
The campaign's had a bumpy ride after the council did a U-turn on withdrawing their support
After almost being forced to pull out just weeks before the deadline, Lancashire's officially submitted its bid to become City of Culture 2025.
The county council withdrew their backing leaving it in jeopardy but did a U-turn after local businesses got involved.
A record 20 places across the country have put themselves forward for the prestigious award - an all time high for entries for the competition.
Debbi Lander, Director for the Lancashire bid, said: "People come up north and they'll go to Manchester for their culture or Liverpool and they'll go to the Lake District for their holiday and they're just driving through Lancashire.
"It's this place (Lancashire) that's actually becoming invisible, so something has to be done to enable Lancashire to rise up and have an identity...and knit it together in a way that it can be powerful again.
"I hope because we've done two years of work, and we've put in a really robust plan - it wasn't just chucked in at the last minute - that we've got a very strong chance of being long-listed. Whether we'll win or not...I don't know...but we should, we deserve it."
The competition, delivered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in collaboration with local governments, uses culture as a catalyst for levelling up areas outside London and putting new parts of the UK on the cultural map internationally.
The winner, which will be announced next year, will take on the baton from Coventry as the 2021 UK City of Culture and be at the centre of the UK’s cultural spotlight in 2025.
The benefits to the winner of the title are huge, attracting millions of visitors and investment and bringing communities together to showcase the place where they live to the country and the world.
Throughout the history of this competition the winning cities have always benefited from financial support to ensure the programme’s success and lasting legacy. Coventry has received over £15.5 million from the Government to directly support its year as UK City of Culture.
The team behind Lancashire 2025 are now looking for innovative ideas from people to create a panel of professional artistic and creative advisors to help develop their bid.
You can find out how to get involved here.
Places that have also submitted a bid:
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
The City of Bangor and Northwest Wales
The Borderlands region, comprising Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Cumbria and Carlisle City
Bradford
Conwy County
Cornwall
Derby
County Durham
Lancashire
Medway
City of Newport
Powys
Southampton
Stirling
The Tay Cities region
Torbay and Exeter
Wakefield District
City of Wolverhampton
Wrexham County Borough
Great Yarmouth & East Suffolk
For more information go to Get Involved at Lancashire2025.com