Basildon, Birkenhead, Grimsby and Rotherham are among the bigger places in the running for the title of the UK’s first Town of Culture.
The 15-strong shortlist, released on Thursday by the government’s department for Culture, Media and Sport (CMS), also includes the medium-sized Corby, Great Yarmouth, Leith, Pontypridd, and Port Talbot.
Smaller places such as Ilfracombe, Isle of Bute, Lerwick, Sandown, Strabane, and Stockton Town Centre Ward round off the list.
Each place will now receive a £60,000 funding boost to develop a full bid and then three winners – best small, medium and large place – will be chosen by an independent judging panel early next year.
An overall winner from these three finalists then will be crowned the UK Town of Culture 2028 and receive a £3 million grant to host cultural events.
The two runners up will receive £250,000 each to carry out part of their programme.
The UK Town of Culture categorises towns into three specific population brackets: small towns (under 20,000), medium towns (20,000-75,000), and large towns (over 75,000).
The new competition – which has seen 15 places selected from almost 400 applications – will run alongside the UK City of Culture 2029.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy congratulated the shortlisted places, while wishing them luck for the next stage of the process.
“The fact that we received so many applications just goes to show how proud people are of their towns,” noted Nandy.
“When I launched this competition, I wanted to shine a light on our amazing towns all across the UK and the huge contribution they make to our national life.”
Each place must now show how they would use culture to celebrate their town, showcase original storytelling and empower their local communities, as well as attract further investment and visitors.
Chair of the independent panel, which will decide the winner, Hollyoaks writer Sir Phil Redmond said the response to the competition had been “overwhelming” and “quite literally from all four corners of the UK”.
He added: “It has been fantastic that nearly 400 towns have come forward, sharing their sense of pride, ambition and desire to demonstrate how much they have, and continue to contribute to our national story.”
The places shortlisted for the inaugural prize will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the previous winners of the more established UK City of Culture competition, including Derry-Londonderry in 2013, Hull in 2017, Coventry in 2021 and Bradford last year.
