Volunteers at City Park in Bradford join together to celebrate the launch of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (photo credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Media Assignments)

Dynamo, Akram Khan and Asian Dub Foundation among first programmes announced for Bradford 2025

A sensational line-up, from world-famous magician Dynamo to the prestigious Turner Prize, were announced to an eager packed out audience at St George’s Hall for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

Hosted by TV presenter Dr Amir Khan and BBC News Voices rising star Irene Kaali,
Creative Director of Bradford 2025, Shanaz Gulzar, was joined by artists and creatives from across the programme.

Taking place across the district throughout 2025, the programme will celebrate contemporary culture in all forms and showcase the rich history and heritage of the area.

Events, performances and activities will spread from the city to the towns, villages and green spaces across the district, running from January to December 2025.
 
Among the highlights were a national drawing project backed by artist David Hockney, a show created by magician Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo), an Asian Dub Foundation performance, and the prestigious Turner Prize to held in the city.

Among Bradford 2025 events, music is a big feature in with brass bands and South Asian music featuring alongside the Bassline music genre which has its origins in Yorkshire.

Renowned dancer and choreographer Akram Khan is set to collaborate with Dance United Yorkshire for a new intergenerational project, featuring 60 dancers from across Bradford communities.

Bradford residents will be involved in many of the performances and activities, telling stories about their city and district (photo credit: Karol Wyszynski)

Shanaz Gulzar, Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Creative Director, said: “I am delighted to announce the first events in the programme for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, which showcase the exceptionally rich, diverse talent that Bradford holds.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate our extraordinary cultural heritage, and for our young population to become leaders and changemakers, starting a new chapter in the story of Bradford.”

Programme highlights of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture

  

  • A large-scale outdoor theatrical event created by the district’s own magician, Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo) and directed by Kirsty Housley, will launch Bradford 2025. (10 & 11 January).
  • Inspired by Hockney, Bradford 2025 is inviting people of all ages across the UK to take part in a drawing project, ‘DRAW!’, to reflect our everyday lives (throughout 2025).
  • For Paraorchestra, Charles Hazlewood and Jeremy Deller’s The Bradford Progress, the district will come alive with music made by the singers and musicians who call it home – a sonic journey ending in the centre of the city (May).
  • The Turner Prize, which showcases and celebrates the most exciting new developments in British art, will be hosted at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, in the year that the UK celebrates the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth (from September).
  • Akram Khan collaborates with Dance United Yorkshire for a new intergenerational project Memories of the Future, featuring 60 dancers drawn from communities across Bradford, inspired by Akram Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined (July).
  • The wide skies and expansive moorland that spurred Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is the stage for Wild Uplands, four new contemporary visual artworks created by national and international artists placed across Penistone Hill Country Park (from May).
  • Four fantasy writers and illustrators from Ghana and the north of England revisit the Brontës’ imaginary world of Angria for a new collection of stories and animations to be published as part of the annual Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing (September).
  • The National Science and Media Museum reopens in January 2025 and will feature a new digital installation by Marshmallow Laser Feast (from April 2025).
  • Film director Clio Barnard (Ali & Ava, The Selfish Giant) will curate a series of films from working-class northern women, behind and in front of the camera at the National Science and Media Museum’s Pictureville, Yorkshire’s biggest independent cinema (February).
  • Mike Kenny’s Olivier Award-winning adaptation of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children will  take place on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line (from July).
  • Ice Age Art Now presents work by people living in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, some as much as 32,000 years old. This exhibition features a wealth of rare items from the British Museum and local treasures from the collections of Bradford District Museums & Galleries. (from June).
  • The first UK City of Culture exhibition to include all four nations of the UK will travel to four cities, featuring local heroes from Bradford, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast photographed by Aïda Muluneh, as part of a series of new artworks from the acclaimed Ethiopian artist (from January).
  • Opera North takes up residency across the year with an immersive sound walk featuring new music from three leading composers inspired by the music of Bradford-born composer Delius (from May); the Orchestra of Opera North join forces with bassline musicians, singers and DJs for Bassline Symphony (May); singing and performance workshops in schools (year-round), and the company’s first ever performances of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (April).

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