Borderlands submits bid for 2025 City of Culture
Boasting in a video about the region’s commitment to sustainability, rich culture and proud heritage, the South of Scotland Enterprise has thrown its hat into the City of Culture ring.
The 2025 UK City of Culture contest has expanded its directive to include areas that have a clear identity, as well as cities. In the case of the SOSE entry, the region will include local authorities Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Carlisle City, Cumbria and Northumberland. Those are the local authorities that make up the Borderlands Partnership.
Lancashire also submitted a bid for the competition.
You can watch SOSE’s video for the bid below.
SOSE pointed to Coventry, which is this year’s City of Culture winner, as proof that the award is one worth winning. According to SOSE, Coventry expects a £211m economic boost with an additional 2.5m visitors because of the City of Culture title.
“A successful bid can have a transformational impact for a city or region,” said SOSE chair Russel Griggs. “By combining the efforts of the Borderlands partners, our bid now has the creative and cultural talent of five areas, providing a significant and varied offering which we believe is worth telling across the country, and beyond.
“Coupled with our natural landscape, our people, our heritage and our joint journey to Net Zero, we believe the Borderlands is the right place at the right time to take forward this exciting opportunity for our region,” he continued.
The deadline for 2025 UK City of Culture bids officially closed 19 July. A shortlist of up to six locations will be announced in September. Those areas will have until January 2022 to submit their full bids for the competition. The winner will be announced in May 2022.
