Council look to form Culture Trust to win UK City of Culture 2029 for Wrexham

Live music, comedy, football and play will be the focus of Wrexham’s bid to become the host of UK City of Culture 2029.

Wrexham missed out on the chance to host the prestigious event in 2025, missing out to Bradford in this year’s final.

As we have previously reported work is now underway to launch a fresh attempt to become City of Culture in 2029, with a number of events planned to take place over the next few weeks to highlight everything that the county borough has to offer.

However it is unlikely that Wrexham Council will be the formal applicant, with plans to create a Culture and Community Trust to take forward the work.

The details are provided within a report due before members of the council’s employment, business and investment committee on Wednesday (7 September).

It states that Joanna Swash, CEO of Moneypenny and heavily involved in the recent bid, will act as interim Chair of the Cultural and Community Trust Board until the full Board is established.

From there an Executive Lead Officer post will be created to “lead the recruitment process for Shadow Board members, and then full Board members, to lead work on a business plan from 2022 – 2029 and develop a cultural strategy in preparation for the recruitment of the Cultural and Community Trust by the end of 2024.”

A decision to create a trust comes off the back of feedback from the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) , which stated that it “expected a cultural trust to be formed to deliver UK City of Culture.”

Although there is an expectation that any council involved in a bid would play a key role in the trust, but will not be the lead body.

The report continues onto say that: “A Trust would act as an impartial group that can oversee a Cultural Strategy with the creativity and diversity necessary to make it appeal to the maximum number of people and be a success in terms of public participation and the legacy that it leaves for the County Borough.”

Details are also provided of what work will take place over the next few years to build up to Wrexham’s next City of Culture bid.

Wrexham Council was awarded £125,000 from the DCMS to help “build momentum” and host a series of events in the run up to the bid in for the 2029 event.

This, the report states, will be used to help support a series of activities leading up to a 2023 events programme to include
activities under the seven signature events listed in the bid:

• Play
• Focus Wales
• Eisteddfod (2025)
• Football Event
• Heritage Event
• “STEAM”
• Comedy

The funding will be broken down to provide £12,500 for the establishment of a trust, £50,000 for the development of links with international and national bodies to support the delivery of two “signature events” – which will be Comedy, Focus Wales and the Eisteddfod – picked as they “have the highest potential for delivery in this area in such a short timescale.”

£12,500 is allocated for research into the development of a ‘UK Capital of Play’ strategy.

£50,000 will be spent on the development of a supported Community Commissioning project, which will see 8 x £5,000 commissions issued, with an additional £10,000 set aside to work with local community partners to support projects on a smaller scale.

All activities will be required to show the development of cultural partnerships to help “aid the progression of Wrexham as a cultural destination”.

The report explains: “Plans have started in the development of a cultural events programme in the years 2023, 2025 and 2027 in preparation of the delivery of UK City of Culture in 2029 (if successful).

“During the City of Culture application process the National Eisteddfod Wales confirmed their intent to bring the National Eisteddfod to Wrexham in 2025.

“In addition, 2023 will see the start of a Cycling City Tour Series. Agreeing the 2023 event now will enable Wrexham to be the first city in the UK to promote its involvement in the 2023 tour series, and will support a series of tour events including the potential to attract the Tour of Britain in 2025.”

To help facilitate the expected increase in events that will take place across Wrexham in 2023, additional resources will be put into the current Corporate Events Team.

This will include two additional events officers and a marketing and promotions officer to be employed by Autumn 2022.

However responsibility for delivery of this work after 2023 will fall to the lead body for City of Culture.

Although not specified on the agenda, with the culture bid and destination of cash being looked at, councillors will no doubt be examining what worked and did not work last time around – we published an FOI of some of the £305,000 spend for the 2025 bid here.

The report will be discussed by members of the council’s employment, business and investment committee at a meeting on Wednesday 7 September.