Exeter suffers blow in City of Culture bid

City snubbed alongside Plymouth

Exeter has failed to make the cut for the UK City of Culture 2029 title after its bid was rejected.

The city had put significant effort into trying to secure the honour, but has not made the long-list of cities now in the running.

The snub extended to other South West cities, too, with Plymouth and Bristol also being rejected.

Exeter City Council’s deputy leader, Councillor Laura Wright (Labour, St Thomas), acknowledged it wasn’t the news the city had been hoping for.

“Naturally I’m disappointed with the news but I would like to congratulate all the other cities on the long list,” she said.

“This has been a worthwhile exercise, and I still believe that Exeter has a cultural offering that the city can be proud of and improve on in years to come.”

Cllr Wright added that the effort the city had put into the bid wouldn’t be wasted, because it had spent months of engagement and consultation with artists, creatives, cultural organisations and residents to help shape the council’s new culture strategy. 

“The strategy will set out a clear ambition for the next five years and will be delivered in partnership with the city’s cultural organisations ensuring our residents are at the heart of our offering,” she said.

“We will use the momentum of the City of Culture bid and the new strategy to put culture at the heart of Exeter and strengthen our sector.”

The cities that made the long list for the UK City of Culture 2029 are: Blackpool, Inverness-Highland, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swindon and Wrexham.

Sir Phil Redmond, UK City of Culture expert advisory panel chair, thanked Exeter for its bid and said that the panel very much enjoyed reading it, particularly the feedback on health and wellbeing.

“It was an extremely difficult decision to make as we received a strong and diverse group of initial bids, but we were only able to invite nine places to submit a full application,” he said.