The City of Culture 2025 was Bradford’s chance to shine. And now after a hugely successful year it is hoped that the spotlight which turned on the city will help create a lasting legacy.
By Annette McIntyre
There’s certainly lots to be proud of according to Dan Bates, Executive Director of Bradford Culture Company, the charity set up to deliver the year of events. And although the main programme has now come to an end the charity’s work on Bradford 2025 is continuing, with community events until the end of February and a programme of legacy events going up to 2027.
Bradford 2025 has proved an undoubted success – and speaking after the year came to its formal end with a spectacular show in Bingley, Dan said they had now been asked to stage a legacy programme of events – with details expected in the spring.
He said “It’s really important that Bradford preserves the legacy of the city of culture and the council have asked us to work together on continuing a series of events.”
“I think the council’s been quite proud of what we’ve achieved,” he added. “The City of Culture is a real group effort. We have been working with partners across the whole district to deliver this. I think that’s really important to get across – and actually without Bradford Council’s support it would never have happened.”
The year kicked off with a spectacular outdoor show RISE, which transformed City Park into a vast open‑air stage for two unforgettable nights in January 2025 – attracting around 10,000 people per night despite freezing temperature. The 200‑strong cast were drawn from both professional performers and local residents.
Bradford’s Year of Culture officially came to an end with a grand finale in Bingley, celebrating the Winter Solstice. Thousands of people gathered at Myrtle Park for the Brighter Still concert, which featured more than 250 local performers, with a community cast of 90 Bradford residents aged from eight to 76 joining forces with dancers, musicians and choirs.
After a breathtaking year of events it will be a while before its impact can be fully assessed but the statistics already show an impressive picture. Figures from the end of November reveal that more than three million people came to see more than 5,000 events, staged across all 30 wards.
“We’ve had nearly 87,000 people who have been participating in the performances, the workshops and activities as well,” Dan said.
Bradford 2025 has worked with hundreds of artists, culture organisations and community groups and thousands of people have benefited from skills development and training.
“People have said that Bradford 2025 has really improved their well-being and increased their pride in where they live, as well as bringing people together – so it has been an amazing year.”
With so many spectacular events it’s hard to pick out the highlights but Dan said: “I think The Beacon, which was our touring venue that went round four parks this summer, was really amazing. I think the Railway Children at Oxenhope was a really beautiful celebration of theatre and railways as well and we welcomed visitors from all over the world for that. But I’ve also loved the work that we’ve done with young people – it was really important that they were involved in the program as well.”
He praised the less visible work that has taken place, such as the work in communities or in schools and the workshops in old people’s homes and community centres.
“I’m really proud of the investment that we’ve made in capital which really helped behind the scenes of the city of culture,” he added, citing improvements such as new accessible facilities at locations such as Bronte Parsonage.
“So once the City of Culture is finished we will then see the work that we’ve done will remain forever and help people across the district,” he stressed.
He said organisers had been “really blessed” with the team of people they had working with them – including a very high percentage of Bradford people.
“Sixty-five per cent of our suppliers are local as well so we’ve tried to keep our spend in the local economy,” he added.
Dan stressed it had been a privilege to be part of the action packed year and he said the feedback had been amazing.
“One of the purposes of the City of Culture is to make the whole district shine and I think we’ve really shown a light on Bradford during the year,” he said. “And I think people who’ve come to this city for the first time have been amazed.”
Bradford has seen a big growth in tourism, an increase in overnight stays and more people travelling on the trains across 2025.
“We’ve had comments from people all over the world who’ve been to Bradford for the first time,” Dan said. “We’ve had volunteers work with us from Canada and just this weekend we’ve had messages from people in Australia as well who’ve heard about it and who wanted to send their congratulations as well – so it’s all been really positive.”
Efforts were made to ensure that the cultural programme benefitted all communities across Bradford. The team worked closely with young people as well as teams of people working directly in communities. They also helped support 110 grassroots projects with funding.
These groups created their own work to celebrate the city of culture, with numerous examples including a sculpture trail in Northcliffe Woods.
“This is so important – it’s not just about the big work that we brought to Bradford, it’s about what’s happening on the doorstep as well,” Dan stressed.
He described the work in the community as inspirational and confidence building.
“You’ve got the Turner Prize on in Bradford at Cartwright Hall which is on until February half term – that’s world class artists in Bradford and thousands of people have gone to see that exhibition,” he said. “But at the same time we had our own version of it in a local way and had over a hundred local people exhibiting their works in an open art exhibition as well – and that’s been really lovely.”
He stressed that one of their strategies was to work with as many people as possible across the district.”
Even the best planned programmes don’t always work out as expected – particularly where the weather is involved. But when Storm Claudia threatened the David Hockney drone show plans were quickly changed.
“We brought it forward by one day,” Dan said. “With less than 24 hours notice we moved that event and 10,000 people turned up to Robert’s Park to see this incredible piece of work.”
Dan has no doubt about the most important factor behind the City of Culture’s success: “I think Bradford people,” he said. “We’ve tried to make sure that the programs are about people. Everything we’ve done has been about people and trying to hear people’s voices in our work. Bradfordians are really proud of their city and district and they really wanted to show it off and welcome people as well.”
He also thanked media organisations, including the Telegraph and Argus, who had helped to tell the story of Bradford. And he said the BBC Antiques Roadshow episode which was filmed in the city was one of the most popular ever.
Throughout the year Dan and his team have tried to showcase Bradford to a wider audience.
“We’ve taken Bradford as a canvas and made sure everyone can see it,” he said. “I think it’s been really really important that people know more about Bradford now, as well as the heritage of Bradford, which is so important. The kind of welcome you get in Bradford is really important as well.”
There is no doubt that the City of Culture year has brought immense benefits to the city.
Dan explained that it was too early to give detailed information about the economic impact of the year, stressing: “The financial information won’t come out for a bit of a longer period yet – but we know that it has helped increase tourism, has helped the local economy and has increased footfall in the city centre as well. We know that there’s been more travel and overnight stays as well so that’s all about investment really.”
He said the lasting legacy would come from the fact that the district had benefited from more people and from some capital investment.
He added: “I think that a greater sense of pride is really, really important. We wanted to create some memories for Bradford – and we wanted people to remember what happened in the City of Culture.”
“Bradford is going to be brighter as well and I think that’s really important,” he said.
Now that the City of Culture year has reached its grand finale – despite some continuing events – the company, which has had more than 100 staff, will be much reduced.
“The company will continue on but it will be a much smaller staff team – which has always been the plan,” Dan said. “Everyone is working on fixed terms so we’re just looking at what is needed for the year ahead.”
“Part of our staff team has included apprentices and young creatives as well and they all finish quite soon actually,” he added. “Most of the people who are leaving now have all gone to really great jobs. That’s really exciting for us as well – I feel like we’ve done our job. I think it’s been a great opportunity for everybody and it’s been really fantastic that people have now been given a great step up.”
Bradford Culture Company will remain in place until March 2027 to “develop the legacy programme” for Bradford 2025, and continue to apply for funding for cultural events in the district.
And they will continue working with Bradford’s museums and galleries to deliver a “joined up cultural offer” for this year.
Towards the end of 2025 it was announced that £39m investment had been secured for Bradford during the year. Bradford Council had invested £10m into Bradford 2025.
A statement from the council said: “With record audiences, national recognition and more than £39m investment secured during its year as City of Culture, Bradford Council is committing to ongoing support for the cultural sector to deliver the next chapter of Bradford’s cultural growth.
“Throughout 2025, Bradford showcased its creativity on a scale never seen before. From RISE and Strike to Painting the Sky, The Turner Prize, The Railway Children, Beacon and Antiques Roadshow, and from a Royal visit to features on Gardener’s World, Countryfile and Extraordinary Portraits, the 2025 programme reached tens of millions of people across the UK and beyond.”
