City comes together to launch 2029 culture bid

Milton Keynes is calling on residents, creatives and businesses to come together to help it become UK City of Culture in 2029.

The final bid will be submitted in August, with shortlisted cities announced in the autumn - and a winner revealed in early 2027 when Milton Keynes turns 60.

Over the next month, eight pop-up sessions will take place in the city where local people can share ideas, family stories and their thoughts on what MK means to them.

Liberal Democrat Jane Carr, leader of Milton Keynes City Council, said: "Being longlisted is just the beginning, now we have the chance to come together and create something bold, ambitious and uniquely ours."

As part of the latest stage of Milton Keynes bid, a 'Book of Ideas' will be set up at those sessions and people can also share ideas online.

Session host Ursula White said: "This would be such a wonderful thing for the people of Milton Keynes, especially creative people, artists, but also communities.

"There's other cities of culture and it's meant such a lot to people around the UK who have been involved in those. There's so much going on in Milton Keynes, there really is."

Other places on the longlist are Blackpool, Inverness-Highland, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swindon and Wrexham. Previous winners have included Bradford, Coventry and Hull.

The winning city will receive £10m to help develop culture locally.

Milton Keynes became a city in 2022, as part of the late Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations - and already has culture in abundance.

More than 70,000 people attend Reggae Land at the National Bowl each year with the next one in August, while The Prodigy, UB40, Grace Jones and Candi Staton are also due at the venue this year.

Campbell Park regularly hosts events on summer weekends, including Art in the Park, MK Community Choirs' Festival, the Zimbabwe Heritage Festival, MK Weekender, MKF Tribute Festival, MK Pride and Oktoberfest.

Every two years, the city hosts the International Festival, with the next one scheduled for 2027, and it has a gallery, theatre and live music venue The Stables, plus a series of smaller theatres and local amateur dramatic groups.

It could soon be home to a "world-class" £76m 4,000 capacity entertainment venue at Elder Gate, which will go to public consultation later this year and could open in 2029, with the potential to attract more than 300,000 visitors annually and create about 70 new jobs.

Carr, who became leader of the authority earlier this month, said: "Winning the title would be transformative for many years, but the journey is something great in itself – and our conversations are already sparking ideas, strengthening connections and creating new cultural opportunities we can all be proud of."

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