Every year, The Council of the European Union designates a city as ‘European Capital of Culture’. The city is in a different member state each year, and the next time it will be in the UK is 2008 (the last time was in 1990, when the honour went to Glasgow).

Being Capital of Culture means staging a year-long programme of cultural events — a sort of 365 day Festival. But it’s also about building for the future: the criteria state that the event should "mark a lasting change in the city’s standing in its own eyes, throughout the UK and on the Continent." The aim is to use the event to build our cultural assets, both by developing what we already have, and by creating new cultural activity.

It would benefit the City and the region massively — culturally, in learning and employment opportunities, in new growth and regeneration. It would cement Norwich’s place as the regional capital, and bring valuable attention and investment to the City.

Some specific benefits include:

• more cultural opportunities for everyone
• a huge increase in tourism (11,000 jobs in the Norwich area are directly dependent on tourism)
• the creation of jobs, and more investment
• projecting Norwich’s profile across the UK, Europe and the world
• a big boost to Norwich’s thriving creative industries
• a still better quality of life
• enhanced pride in our City