The Story So Far

Thirty young ambassadors created a response: a manifesto for the borough's future.

They took it to the borough's change-makers – the Council and cultural organisations. These change-makers saw that local children and young people were passionate about where they lived. And they wanted to nurture this passion. So they set a new goal: for Rotherham to become the world's first Children's Capital of Culture in 2025.

Children's Capital of Culture isn't an award given by the Government, or part of a national culture bid. Instead, it's an ambition that comes from the children and young people of Rotherham.

Children's Capital of Culture shows Rotherham's commitment to giving children and young people a voice. To them playing an active role in the borough's future. And to making Rotherham a place they are proud to call home.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is the lead delivery partner, supported by a huge number of organisations. All of them have worked to turn that ambition into a reality.

In 2025, we had a tremendous year of festivals and fun in Rotherham, with the future generation leading the way on what they wanted their hometown to look like. During our landmark festival year, we saw so many incredible, unique projects brought to life – from a spectacular light and sound trail transforming our town centre into Otherham, to an epic borough-wide baton relay involving 82 schools, to hosting the UK’s largest original community opera ever!

Across 2025, we had a monumental 423,000 participations across our events. This includes viewers marvelling at amazing exhibitions like SELF at Clifton Park Museum and House of Fun at Wentworth Woodhouse, attendees at fun-filled festivals like Rotherham Show, UPLIFT, and Grimm & Co’s Festival of Stories, and much more!

During our festival year, we also worked with 120 of Rotherham’s schools and colleges through our Creative Learning programme. They took part in dozens of amazing projects such as our two-day REACH dance festival in June and our REPLAY festival in November, a film, photography and media festival made for and by children and young people.

We wouldn't have been able to host this year-long cultural celebration without our amazing team of volunteers, continuously helping to make our events an unforgettable experience. Collectively, Children’s Capital of Culture and its partners supported 1,228 volunteers to participate in events and activities throughout 2025, contributing a total of 4,276 hours!

It was without a doubt a brilliant year for arts and culture in Rotherham, and it was all co-created by our borough’s talented children and young people.

With 2025 coming to an end, we said goodbye to our huge year as the world's first Children’s Capital of Culture, but the party didn’t stop there! Up until the end of March 2026, we brought even more events full of festival fun to the streets of Rotherham and invited the whole borough to celebrate our final chapter with us.

We got to reflect on the brilliant achievements of Children’s Capital of Culture and spotlight the diverse talents of Rotherham’s young people one last time at events such as our epic finale The Birthday Party, Rotherham Reimagined: The Children’s Capital of Culture Conference, and Roots: Rotherham Street Carnival. Shaped by so many children and young people across the borough, we truly couldn’t have asked for a better ending to such a remarkable programme, celebrating the bright legacy that Children’s Capital of Culture is leaving.