News: Rotherham reveals programme highlights for Children’s Capital of Culture 2025
A festival of stories, an open-air art gallery, and a retelling of the Magic Flute to create Rotherham's first opera are highlights of Rotherham’s landmark year as Children’s Capital of Culture in 2025.
The first season of the year-long programme will include large-scale events, workshops, classes and a few surprises along the way. Marking Rotherham’s tenure as the world’s first Capital of Culture, the year kicks off with Otherham Winter Festival, a free, world-class cultural experience in the heart of Rotherham town centre. February will see the return of youth music festival, Signals, while March will culminate in Roots: Rotherham Street Carnival, a parade filled with celebrations across the borough.
At a preview event before Christmas, leaders of the project took to the stage to make a series of announcements for 2025, including a new £1.12m investment from Arts Council England, adding to a £1m investment from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority received earlier this year. There will also be a further commitment to employing and nurturing young creative talent in the borough.
Cllr. David Sheppard, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working at Rotherham Council, said: “This is a special moment for Rotherham and its young people. We have collaborated with children and young people from across the borough over the last five years, supporting and championing their talents and creativity and we couldn’t be prouder of the programme of events, festivals, activities, classes and experiences we’ve created together.”
Other festival year highlights announced included collaborations with the Royal Horticultural Society, National Gallery and Royal Ballet & Opera House, as well as Gallery Town, a reimagined outdoor art gallery from Flux Rotherham; House of Fun, a mischievous interruption at Wentworth Woodhouse’s historic mansion; a youth literature festival led by Grimm & Co; a touring film programme with Sheffield DocFest; a pop-up 3-day skate park, roller rink and parkour course; and a borough-wide urban sports celebration, which will include a baton relay across all 130+ schools in Rotherham.
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Grace Bower, 19 from Whiston, is one of the young people steering the festival year. She added: “There’ll be events all year round, designed by young people, like me, for the whole town to enjoy. I’m on the Youth Programming Panel, where young changemakers from across the borough collaborate and ensure our plans speak to the community. We’re buzzing to be shaping the future of Rotherham! 2025 isn’t just about one epic year - it’s about creating something that lasts and showing Rotherham’s young people that this town is full of possibilities. It’s about time we showed the world what Rotherham can do.”
Alongside the events and activities, the year will be supported by an extensive school Creative Learning programme, which will enable every child in the borough to take part. And this month, another six trainee spots are being opened up in the Children’s Capital of Culture employment programme, which gives young people aged 16-25 the chance to work in South Yorkshire’s creative industries, with more job opportunities for young people to be announced across the rest of 2025. Alumni of the traineeship programme have gone on to secure jobs at Netflix and Channel 4.
Rothbiz reported last year that £4.2m is set to be spent on the Children’s Capital of Culture Festival Programme. It is estimated that it will attract external funding in the region of £13.9m.
Rotherham announced its journey to become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture back in 2022. Since then, it has engaged over 260,000 people in youth-led activities, and employed 112 young people in creative industry traineeships.
Sarah Christie, Programme Manager for Children’s Capital of Culture, said at the event: “Children’s Capital of Culture is a reality because of Rotherham’s visionary children and young people, and a group of partners and funders who got behind their ambition.
“2025 is going to be packed full of colourful, creative events that celebrate Rotherham’s identity through the fresh ideas of our young people - but it’s not just a year-long festival. All our activities have the aim of developing children and young people’s skills, aspirations and future opportunities, improving their mental and physical health, and enabling them to feel prouder than ever of where they’re from – our wonderful borough of Rotherham.”
Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture website
Images: Rotherham CCoC / James Mulkeen
The first season of the year-long programme will include large-scale events, workshops, classes and a few surprises along the way. Marking Rotherham’s tenure as the world’s first Capital of Culture, the year kicks off with Otherham Winter Festival, a free, world-class cultural experience in the heart of Rotherham town centre. February will see the return of youth music festival, Signals, while March will culminate in Roots: Rotherham Street Carnival, a parade filled with celebrations across the borough.
At a preview event before Christmas, leaders of the project took to the stage to make a series of announcements for 2025, including a new £1.12m investment from Arts Council England, adding to a £1m investment from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority received earlier this year. There will also be a further commitment to employing and nurturing young creative talent in the borough.
Cllr. David Sheppard, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Neighbourhood Working at Rotherham Council, said: “This is a special moment for Rotherham and its young people. We have collaborated with children and young people from across the borough over the last five years, supporting and championing their talents and creativity and we couldn’t be prouder of the programme of events, festivals, activities, classes and experiences we’ve created together.”
Other festival year highlights announced included collaborations with the Royal Horticultural Society, National Gallery and Royal Ballet & Opera House, as well as Gallery Town, a reimagined outdoor art gallery from Flux Rotherham; House of Fun, a mischievous interruption at Wentworth Woodhouse’s historic mansion; a youth literature festival led by Grimm & Co; a touring film programme with Sheffield DocFest; a pop-up 3-day skate park, roller rink and parkour course; and a borough-wide urban sports celebration, which will include a baton relay across all 130+ schools in Rotherham.
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Grace Bower, 19 from Whiston, is one of the young people steering the festival year. She added: “There’ll be events all year round, designed by young people, like me, for the whole town to enjoy. I’m on the Youth Programming Panel, where young changemakers from across the borough collaborate and ensure our plans speak to the community. We’re buzzing to be shaping the future of Rotherham! 2025 isn’t just about one epic year - it’s about creating something that lasts and showing Rotherham’s young people that this town is full of possibilities. It’s about time we showed the world what Rotherham can do.”
Alongside the events and activities, the year will be supported by an extensive school Creative Learning programme, which will enable every child in the borough to take part. And this month, another six trainee spots are being opened up in the Children’s Capital of Culture employment programme, which gives young people aged 16-25 the chance to work in South Yorkshire’s creative industries, with more job opportunities for young people to be announced across the rest of 2025. Alumni of the traineeship programme have gone on to secure jobs at Netflix and Channel 4.
Rothbiz reported last year that £4.2m is set to be spent on the Children’s Capital of Culture Festival Programme. It is estimated that it will attract external funding in the region of £13.9m.
Rotherham announced its journey to become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture back in 2022. Since then, it has engaged over 260,000 people in youth-led activities, and employed 112 young people in creative industry traineeships.
Sarah Christie, Programme Manager for Children’s Capital of Culture, said at the event: “Children’s Capital of Culture is a reality because of Rotherham’s visionary children and young people, and a group of partners and funders who got behind their ambition.
“2025 is going to be packed full of colourful, creative events that celebrate Rotherham’s identity through the fresh ideas of our young people - but it’s not just a year-long festival. All our activities have the aim of developing children and young people’s skills, aspirations and future opportunities, improving their mental and physical health, and enabling them to feel prouder than ever of where they’re from – our wonderful borough of Rotherham.”
Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture website
Images: Rotherham CCoC / James Mulkeen
14 comments:
My family are looking forward to this. Looks like there will be some good events throughout the year to take part in.
Couldn't make it up, Rotherham if all places capital of children's culture.....hope there's extra security for kids safety, preferably nothing to do with Rotherham council or SYP , they've a wonderful track record of protecting our kids, especially young girls!
I was expecting that to be comment number one, you're a bit slow off the mark. Very predictable but not quick enough.
Why should our children miss out because of events of the past? Makes no sense. I hope this is a big success.
Yest another negative spin from Mr me. Appalling
Sorry Mr Me, have another go
No surprise there! None of his posts make any sense
Absolutely great for the town and its young people.
There looks to be some good events coming. But with CSE hitting the national headlines again (for all the wrong reasons) this has the scope to go spectacularly and horribly wrong.
Really hope it doesn't end up with the EDL camping out in the town. We could do without that again.
My own view is that from day one awarding a self-appointed title like the children's capital of culture is a short sighted and badly thought out concept. It lacks credibility and there are no winners apart from dragging the town's name back through the gutters once again.
Investment in events for children can only be positive and should help change the narrative.
Yes it should. But it doesn't need such a poorly thought out concept as the Children's Capital of Culture to achieve that.
All this does is try and say that the town has changed, when in reality those horrific issues that did so much damage to Rotherham continue to happen. I accept that it's not alone in this regard, but I can't exactly see places affected by the CSE scandal jumping on this particular bandwagon!
Dealing with the CSE issues should be the number one priority for the police and the council. Not a shameful marketing gimmick like this.
Even this week there are still some horrific things coming out about how the CSE scandal was handled in Rotherham.
No one can deny the importance of how CSE is tackled, though the current coverage is purely being driven for opportunistic political reasons, which the majority seem oblivious to.
I agree. The conservatives are calling for an enquiry, yet they were in power for 14 years and didn't implement and recommendations from the enquiries that have already taken place. Kemy was in parliament for the last 10 years and never brought this up before. Additionally those complaining about the council, the council was taken under government control in 2015 on the back of the CSE scandal, so another opportunity for the conservatives to make any changes they wanted to.
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