City of Culture 2025: Full list of cities competing with Wakefield, Pontefract and Castleford for the City of Culture crown

A record number of cities have entered bids for the City of Culture 2025 - meaning a long list of competitors for the Wakefield district.
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Wakefield Council confirmed in June this year that it would be bidding for the title, following a change in the rules which means the entire district can enter the contest.

If successful, the title could mean additional investment in the district, international attention and thousands of visitors.

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In the weeks following the announcement, some of the district's biggest attractions threw their weight behind the bid.

A record number of cities had entered bids for the City of Culture 2025 - meaning a long list of competitors for the Wakefield district.A record number of cities had entered bids for the City of Culture 2025 - meaning a long list of competitors for the Wakefield district.
A record number of cities had entered bids for the City of Culture 2025 - meaning a long list of competitors for the Wakefield district.
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In an exclusive interview with the Express, council leader Denise Jeffery said: "We kept thinking about what we’ve got. The more we talked about it the more we realised that Wakefield had really got the wow factor.

"We’re one city but we’re nine towns and we feel that we’re all communities and we all pull together.

“It’s not just the Sculpture Park and the Hepworth, it’s everything else, the pieces and stories that make this district what it is.”

Denise Jeffery, leader of Wakefield Council, said she was determined to win the City of Culture 2025 title.Denise Jeffery, leader of Wakefield Council, said she was determined to win the City of Culture 2025 title.
Denise Jeffery, leader of Wakefield Council, said she was determined to win the City of Culture 2025 title.
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The founders of Tileyard North, a multi-million pound development in the heart of the city, said he believed the district was "an amazing place with enormous potential", and had a "very, very credible" basis for bidding for the City of Culture title.

And the founder of specialist live events centre Production Park, which has worked with some of the biggest names in music, said the title "would mean your normal Wakefield resident having something that they can get behind, that means something to them, from theatre to art to sculpture.”

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), has now revealed the full list of regions, towns and cities bidding for the crown.

And Wakefield has some serious competition, as it was revealed that a record number of places had submitted entries for the competition.

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As well as nearby Bradford, Wakefield will be taking on bids from Cornwall, Derby, County Durham, Wolverhampton, Southampton and many more.

The initial list of 20 bidders will be reduced to an initial long list of bidders in the coming weeks, before being further reduced to a final shortlist in early 2022.

The winner will be announced in May 2022.

The full list of bidders is as follows:

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