Momentous day as Harrogate submits its entry in £3m contest to be UK Town of Culture 2028
Harrogate has launched its bid to win the UK Town of Culture 2028 contest and a potential £3 million payout in a gathering at one of the town’s best-known landmarks on the Stray.
Leading figures in the group pushing Harrogate’s UK Town of Culture’s credentials came together at Tewit Well in a reflection of just how important the town's spa heritage is to its Expression of Interest which was submitted today, Tuesday, March 31.
Coun Chris Aldred, Mayor of Harrogate, Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, and Craig Ratcliffe, Music Director at St John Fisher Catholic High School, as well as of The Harrogate Band, were joined under the Tuscan columns of Tewit Well by musicians from Harrogate Band and young people from The Brass Brigade, a multi-partner education project working in Harrogate and Wetherby
Earlier this month, residents, local people from the cultural and corporate sectors and community organisations took part in workshops to help shape the vision for the bid.
These provisional ideas will be developed further in Harrogate’s UK Town of Culture programme, if the town ends up shortlisted in the competition.
The aim of Harrogate’s UK Town of Culture 2028 bid is to create a year of "joyful, visible and participatory culture”, bringing activity into streets, parks and public spaces across Harrogate.
Harrogate’s green spaces, including Valley Gardens, Crescent Gardens and the Stray, which celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2028, will provide distinctive settings for outdoor cultural celebration alongside activity in cultural venues, community spaces and the town centre.
Craig Ratcliffe said: “Harrogate is already a cultural hub for so many different things but it would be great to widen this even further."
The list of the contenders competing for the brand new title is growing every day.
Among the other towns to join Harrogate in the contest are Ripon, Helmsley, Halifax, Barnsley, Keighley, Richmond, Whitby, Scarborough, Alnwick, Jarrow, Hastings, Loughborough and Stornoway.
The winner of the UK Town of Culture title will be revealed in early 2027 and will receive £3m to deliver its programme.
The other two finalists will each receive £250,000.