"GET BEHIND THE CULTURE CITY ATTEMPT"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

"Get behind the culture city attempt"

Sir Peter Soulsby has written to more than 350 organisations inviting them to get behind Leicester's bid to become the next UK City of Culture.

The city mayor wants groups and individuals – including all 54 members of the city council – to find out more about the Leicester's bid to succeed current City of Culture Londonderry in 2017, and is holding a briefing session at Curve today.

Sir Peter said: "This is an opportunity for organisations in the city to find out why we decided to bid for the title – and how they can help us to win.

"We'll be explaining what we think the UK City of Culture title could mean for Leicester and discussing some of our initial ideas for the events that could be part of the 2017 programme."

The city's initial bid will be submitted on April 30, and a final bid in September.

If the city is on the shortlist, which will be announced in May or June, many more sessions will be arranged to give as many people as possible the chance to contribute to the bidding process, before the city's final bid is submitted.