Highlands bid falls short but organisers pledge to build on partnerships
Inverness and the Highlands have been ruled out of the longlist for the UK City of Culture 2029 competition, organisers confirmed on Tuesday. Beò! 2029 — the first ever bid to represent an entire Scottish region and the only Scottish contender — was not among the nine areas named on the shortlist.
The decision ends a high-profile campaign that placed the city and surrounding region in competition with Blackpool, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swindon and Wrexham. The bid had highlighted the Inverness Castle Experience and a newly formed Cultural Assembly comprising more than 100 artists, cultural organisations and community figures drawn from across the Highlands.
Campaign leaders said the work done in preparing the bid would not be lost and pledged to seek feedback from national government as they consider next steps.
“Of course we are disappointed. But the reason we bid has not gone away. The Highlands is a place of living, contemporary culture, and putting our Bid together has shown just how much talent, ambition and appetite there is here.”
The quotation came from Bryan Beattie, director of the Beò! 2029 bid. The bid team said it would seek further feedback from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and work with the Creative Highland board to define a way forward in the coming weeks. The Cultural Assembly, formed during the bid process, has been established as a permanent cultural forum and will remain as part of the bid’s legacy.
The leader of Highland Council also responded, acknowledging disappointment while stressing pride in the achievements of the campaign.
“While we are naturally disappointed that Beò! 2029 has not been shortlisted for UK City of Culture, we are immensely proud of what we have achieved through this journey and the new partnerships it has created. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported the bid, and committed their time, energy and ideas.”
What the bid delivered and the immediate consequences
Over the past months the bid process has catalysed activity across the region. The establishment of the Cultural Assembly and the public profile given to Inverness Castle were cited as key outcomes. Local arts organisations, performers and community groups joined to develop programming ideas and ambitions for cultural development.
- Legacy governance: The Cultural Assembly is now a standing forum intended to guide future cultural work.
- Partnerships: New collaborations between artists, local authorities and cultural bodies were formed as part of the bid process.
- Next steps: The bid team will review feedback from DCMS and consult Creative Highland on how to sustain momentum.
While the immediate prize of the City of Culture title — including a significant investment and national spotlight — will now go elsewhere, local leaders framed the outcome as a moment to consolidate the networks and proposals generated by the campaign rather than to abandon them.
Where Inverness stood in the competition
The final shortlist contains nine places, each now competing for the 2029 designation. In contrast to previous Scottish entries that focused on single cities, the Highlands’ bid was notable for its regional approach, aiming to knit together remote and urban communities across a geographically large area.
| Shortlisted places |
|---|
| Blackpool |
| Ipswich |
| Middlesbrough |
| Milton Keynes |
| Portsmouth |
| Sheffield |
| Swindon |
| Wrexham |
For Inverness, the result will prompt questions about how best to translate the ambitions set out in the bid into practical cultural investment, programming and long-term support for artists and venues. The bid team and Highland Council have signalled an intention to examine the feedback from government and to set out a plan in the coming weeks.
Residents and cultural practitioners in the Highlands now face the task of turning the relationships and plans built up during the City of Culture campaign into sustained activity that can improve local artistic infrastructure and community access to culture, even without the national title.
The next phase of activity will be watched closely in Inverness, where hopes of a national cultural spotlight have been tempered by the reality of a competitive field. The Beò! 2029 team and local civic leaders say the campaign has already left an institutional legacy they intend to preserve and build upon.
