After the excitement of reaching the final four in the UK City of Culture 2025 competition, culture remains at the heart of ambitious plans to regenerate County Durham. This month, the county hosts a series of exciting events that are set to bring communities together and bring its streets alive.

This begins tomorrow (Saturday 2 July), as celebrations to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee continue in Durham City’s Wharton Park. Families can make the most of the day with free Jubilee craft sessions available from 11am and a live concert from the Band and Bugles of The Rifles getting underway at 4pm, before the day closes with a picnic in the park.

Communities across the county are then set to come alive with the sound of feel-good brass music from Sunday 10 to Sunday 17 July. The much-loved festival, which is one of the highlights of Durham County Council’s annual events programme, will feature a series of free concerts in communities, schools and care homes as well as a host of spectacular performances from world-renowned artists at Gala Durham and Durham Cathedral.

Big and Mini BRASS Bashes will be held in Trimdon, Crook, Seaham, Newton Aycliffe, Willington and Bishop Auckland, before Streets of Brass brings some old favourites and new faces to Durham City during the festival’s final weekend.  There will also be a fabulous, free party featuring all the bands in Wharton Park from 6pm on Saturday 16 July.

More than 42,000 people engaged with the BRASS festival in 2019, highlighting the power of culture to bring people together. It also creates an opportunity to bring distinctive cultural experiences to those who may not attend more traditional concert settings.

BRASS is just one of the many cultural events and activities taking place in County Durham this year, demonstrating the council’s ongoing commitment to cultural-led regeneration. This includes delivering key projects within County Durham’s shortlisted UK City of Culture bid and raising the county’s profile as a fantastic place to live, work, visit and invest. It also includes progressing major capital projects, such as the redevelopment of the former DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery into a stunning new creative centre showcasing national and international contemporary art alongside collections that celebrate the county’s heritage.

And, with the final weekend of BRASS also coinciding with the ever-popular Durham City Run, Durham’s position as a county of culture capable of building a prosperous and inclusive future for all is further cemented.