The official date we will find out the winner of the City of Culture 2025 competition has finally been revealed.

The much-anticipated result will be announced after 7pm on Tuesday May 31.

The announcement will be made on BBC One's The One Show by Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nadine Dorries.

Southampton is competing for the City of Culture crown alongside fellow finalists County Durham, Bradford and Wrexham County Borough. 

All of them were visited by the judges at the start of this month and featured in special reports on The One Show.

Director for Southampton's City of Culture bid, Claire Whitaker OBE, said: “After three long years and untold hard work and commitment by a huge amount of people - to whom I give heartfelt thanks - it will be great to know that by Tuesday evening it will have been announced that Southampton has been successful, or not, in its bid to become UK City of Culture 2025.

“I’ve been thrilled at the way the city and the wider region have come together and I’m confident that we couldn’t have done any more.”

Winning the competition is set to unlock investment and boost tourism opportunities.

In 2017, Hull’s year as UK City of Culture, the city welcomed an estimated 1.3 million more visitors than in 2013, when it submitted its bid.

The title also attracted £220m of investment and created 800 new jobs in the area - with over 130 new businesses starting up during its year as City of Culture.

Southampton residents hope winning the title would also help restore a sense of pride in the city.

Josef Hill, an Art Installer for both John Hansard and City Gallery, said: "It would just push us over the edge into achieving a bit of a self-sustaining cultural identity, which I think would be huge for the city.

“It would give people a sense of ownership over their environment which I think is key to people having pride in their city and feeling part of it, and a bit of inter-connectedness as well between the different institutions. Sometimes I think in the past they’ve felt quite isolated from one another.”

University student Ellen Sayers, 21, added: “It would be a great chance to bring everybody together and have more money brought into Southampton. It would benefit those that live here and be great for tourism too.”

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