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UK city of culture

October 2026

  • Aerial view of Blackpool Tower, pier and promenade along the beach and ocean waves

    Blackpool, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Wrexham shortlisted for UK city of culture 2029

    The winner will receive £10m and each shortlisted city will be given £125,000

January 2026

  • Imbalance performing at the 1 in 12 Club.

    ‘Fascists threatened us but we always took them on’: the anarchic Bradford club still fighting after 45 years

    A new book and podcast tell the story of the 1 in 12, a venue that used community and artistic passion as bulwarks against poverty and grim politics. Its founders and key acts recall gigs, plays and pranks on the NME

October 2025

  • Woodland warriors … the cast in rehearsals.

    ‘Epic with a capital E’: inside Elmet, a tale of violence and greed on haunted Yorkshire heath

    Elmet, a novel that was shortlisted for the Booker, is a lyrical, richly written tale of a woodland family on a collision course with an avaricious landowner. Can it work on stage in Bradford?

August 2025

  • Leicester Forest East by Kate Jackson.

    ‘Flyovers can be incredibly beautiful!’ Long Blondes singer Kate Jackson’s new career as a motorway artist

    In her neck scarf and beret, she sang songs that defined the 2000s. Now the frontwoman has a second life – turning unloved roads, bridges and service stations into dazzling ‘pop art’ scenes full of romance and possibility

June 2025

  • Jasdeep Singh Degun St Georges Hall Bradford In To The Night VF-3525

    New Music Biennial review – sitars, thorax-quaking bass and vibrators

    A varied weekend in the UK City of Culture showcased a huge range of energetic, imaginative and boundary-crossing new music

March 2025

  • The restored art deco interior of Bradford Live

    Bradford Live is not dead: new operator found for troubled Yorkshire venue

    The art deco former theatre escaped demolition, but has been closed since its recent £50m renovation

January 2025

  • Lanre Bakare

    double quotation markWe don’t have the swagger of Manchester or the sheen of Leeds, but Bradford has a radical culture all its own

    Lanre Bakare
  • Two acrobatic performer, one lifting the other, stand in front of scaffolding, on which more performers are moving

    ‘The scale is blowing my mind’: Bradford ready to shift perceptions as city of culture

  • Andrea Dunbar

    Bradford city of culture: five events to look out for in 2025

  • Full steam ahead … the award-winning stage adaptation of The Railway Children, coming to Bradford.

    ‘It’s our Olympic opening ceremony’: Dynamo, David Hockney and more unite for Bradford city of culture

August 2024

  • Mass roadworks on Bridge Street in the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, which is preparing to become the UK city of culture 2025.

    Bradford races against the clock to finish works in time for city of culture

    Just four months away from taking on the prestigious honour, event organisers are facing numerous challenges

May 2024

  • Bryony Bond, in a puffer jacket and with short curly hair, stands in front of a brick building with a mural of swirly plants on it

    ‘A kick in the teeth’: Leeds artists fear loss of spaces is killing cultural scene

    Council spending cuts are forcing studios and venues to close, driving out the city’s creative businesses

August 2023

  • Kingsley Ahenkora-Duodu looks through a telescope in the converted school bus through a viewpoint in the roof

    Moon Palace: the observatory bus bringing ‘awe and wonder’ to Leeds

    Project inspired by John Smeaton, a keen astronomer who is seen as the father of civil engineering, is touring Leeds for four months

January 2023

  • Leeds Year of Culture 2023<br>Carnival dancers performs on stage during The Awakening at Headingley Stadium in Leeds which celebrates the city's cultural past, present and future at the start of Leeds Year of Culture 2023. Picture date: Saturday January 7, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

    I get knocked down: Leeds’ year of culture rises from the ashes of Brexit

    Leeds’ bid to be European capital of culture was scuppered when Britain left the EU – but the city is carrying on regardless with dancing, barn-building and statues to local heroes

June 2022

  • Salts Mill on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, Saltaire, near Bradford.

    Ten reasons why Bradford deserves to be 2025’s city of culture

  • Bradford City Hall reflected in the Mirror Pool in Bradford City Park

    The Guardian view on Bradford, city of culture: Yorkshire’s triumph

  • Victorian buildings

    ‘Welcome home sexy’: Bradford relishes its year in the limelight

  • Bradford citizens celebrate being named the UK city of culture 2025

    double quotation markI used to balk at telling people I was from Bradford – now it’s a UK city of culture

    Ghazal Abbasi

May 2022

  • An aerial view of Bradford

    Bradford named as the UK city of culture 2025

    City announced winner after months of competition, beating Southampton, Wrexham and County Durham

April 2022

  • The Armonico Consort performing Toby Young's Breathlines at Coventry Cathedral during the PRS Foundation and Southbank Centre's New Music Biennial.

    New Music Biennial review – a broad-minded mix of genres and styles

    On its 10th anniversary, the biennial featured 10 new pieces and 10 revivals, from Paul Purgas’s pulsing tape piece to Arlene Sierra’s touching work for three pianos and birdsong
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