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Festivals and events bring people together, creating excitement, joy and energy. At their best, they share ideas and experiences that can extend people’s horizons and transform their lives
Two happy young women pose to take a selfie inside a colourful indoor garden created by The Brick Box as part of their project inside the former Marks and Spencer store in Bradford. Image ©Karol Wyszynski
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We have a proud track record of creating exceptional festivals which continues today with not just one, but two famous literature festivals in Ilkley and Bradford.
But in recent years other festivals in the District have struggled. Austerity has taken its toll on Illuminate, the Bradford Festival and Bradford International Film Festival amongst others. Organisers of events complain of difficulties in gaining permissions and finding partners. Meanwhile, Bradford Council’s own programme of activity in City Park has struggled to attract national investors.
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Many people look back fondly to the 1980s and 90s and the legendary Bradford Festival and Mela. While that event is in the past, its spirit isn’t, and Bradford is still a place where fresh festival activity continues to spring up from its grassroots:
Keighley’s Arts and Film Festival got off to a flying start with a pilot in 2019 and will return post-COVID in 2021.
Haworth’s 1940s weekend grows from strength to strength.
In 2020, young women artists spontaneously banded together to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month and pulled off an amazing series of events over Zoom at the height of the pandemic.
Each year, the Tech Styles International Festival brings international hip hop artists to Kala Sangam to meet and inspire our artists.
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For several years, Cecil Green Arts’ annual Lantern Parade in Lister Park has beguiled all ages.
Running throughout July since 2019, the Bradford fringe festival is a grassroots, volunteer-led, DIY festival.
Yorkshire Games Festival is the National Science and Media Museum’s five-day bonanza of games and gaming culture, with more than 7,000 visitors and a mission to inspire future digital creators.
We can also give a distinctively Bradford twist to existing global brands: TEDxBradford, organised by 30 Chapel Street, has hosted 46 speakers since 2011, while the Women of the World (WOW) festival, organised by Common Wealth and Speakers' Corner, came here in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
‘Culture for me is centered around people and places — live music, food
and art’
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The bid to become UK City of Culture has created the momentum to raise the quality of our festivals and events calendar. We aspire to attract new audiences and participants, made up of visitors and locals alike.
↓ What we'll do
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council will move from directly delivering events and festivals to collaborating with partners. Working with Bradford 2025 City of Culture Bid, The Leap, Bradford Producing Hub and independent organisers and promoters, it will develop a new calendar of festivals and events that will:
Make the most of existing grassroots activity, promote projects with the potential to grow and attract partnerships and media attention
Be rooted in and relevant to the communities of the District
Be of the highest artistic quality, prioritising original, distinctive work made here
Build capacity in the District to mount future festivals and events
The Council will redeploy its festival funds as leverage to increase national investment, while streamlining the licensing process to make creating festivals and events easier for everyone.