County aims to become ‘City of Culture’ in regional bid
LANCASHIRE is launching a bid for the entire county to be named as the UK’s City of Culture.
Organisers of the bid say that the competition often alienates rural communities and they want to put that right with a bid that doesn’t focus on a single urban centre.
Despite being called
“City of Culture”, Marketing Lancashire bosses say the guidelines have always allowed for a bid covering a region.
Coventry will become City of Culture in 2021 and Lancashire wants to take the title in 2025.
City of Culture status can bring significant investment and a successful bid would be seen as a catalyst for a change in the county’s cultural and economic development.
Tony Attard, chair of Lancashire 2025, said: “From the very beginning we were focused on constructing a bid that would include the whole of Lancashire, not focus in on just one urban centre.
“Lancashire is 80% rural, with 137 miles of coastline, assets that add immense value to our cultural landscape and that we want to emphasise, not underplay. We also have significant urban centres, all of which have their own distinct identities, none of which dominate in scale and again, each one with assets that will add weight to our bid.”
The bid will be formally submitted in the spring.
Debbi Lander, bid director, said: “The bid will embrace different cultural personalities; the urban, coastal, countryside, industrial, historical and technological, all constellations of the shifting epicentre of our imagined, virtual city. Future cities should not be constrained by historic or geographic boundaries. Digital technology and connectivity has enabled the creation of new places or spaces more so than urban centres.”
Meanwhile, Labour has made a manifesto pledge for a Town of Culture competition, to run alongside City of Culture.
The cities and towns involved in the bid are: Burnley, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, Accrington, Morecambe, Lancaster, Fleetwood, Chorley, Clitheroe, Garstang, Ormskirk, Lytham St Anne’s, and Poulton-le-Fylde.