Get Outside with Bradford 2025

Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor

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Get Outside with Bradford 2025

Until 31 December 2025

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Get Outside with Bradford 2025: An image of a large man made pool with fountains in front of a historic building with a clock tower
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Bradford 2025 – UK City of Culture is in full swing, with cultural happenings blooming all over the city and the wider district. Below are just some of the ways in which you can experience the larger-scale public commissions. These site-specific works, most of which are free, are designed for the outdoors and show how world-class talent and local perspectives can combine to create remarkable experiences for everyone.

Step into the moorland above the city with the newly commissioned visual artworks that form Wild Uplands, a collection of site-specific pieces from internationally renowned artists. You can explore these while listening to Earth & Sky, a sound walk created by Opera North, combining new music, field recordings and the works of Bradford-born Frederick Delius. You can also watch the city transform with BD Walls, an ever-growing open-air gallery of new large-scale street art.

For performance with a difference, seek out The Railway Children, a spectacular production that blends theatrical magic with Yorkshire’s railway heritage. Step into the world of the Waterbury children as you board a real steam train and set off down the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, before experiencing a fresh staging of the show in a specially built auditorium.

To get between all these outdoor happenings, check out the walking trails of Bradford on Foot, 25 curated routes showing off the best of the city and surrounding area.

Get outside with Bradford 2025. Scroll down to find out more.

Our top picks

Bradford on Foot

Bradford on Foot, Until 18 October 2025, Free entry

Get outside with one of the 25 specially devised walking trails in and around Bradford, as part of UK City of Culture 2025. Whether you’re looking to get into nature, connect with local history, or find accessible ways to enjoy the city outdoors, there’s something for everyone – and it’s all completely free.

Bradford on Foot
Courtesy Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Image credit: David Lindsay

BD Walls

BD Walls, Until 31 December 2025, Free entry - Visit now

Street art takes centre stage in BD Walls, with vibrant murals transforming the city of Bradford into an open-air cultural gallery.

BD Walls
Courtesy of Bradford 2025 - UK City of Culture. Image credit: David Lindsay

Wild Uplands at Penistone Hill Country Park

Wild Uplands at Penistone Hill Country Park, Bradford, Until 12 October 2025, Free entry - Visit now

Inspired by the surrounding landscape, four new large-scale public art commissions will embed themselves into the Bradford Moorlands this summer.

The landscape of a grassy hills covered in pink shrubs and a sky full of clouds.
Courtesy of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Image credit: David Lindsay

Earth & Sky at Penistone Hill Country Park

Earth & Sky at Penistone Hill Country Park, Bradford, Until 12 October 2025, Free entry - Visit now

Opera North soundtrack your journey through the Uplands with three new commissions and a homage to Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius. Using state-of-the-art geolocation technology, you can listen to a curated soundscape that transitions as you move through the moor.

A woman wearing a long green jacket and a speckled dress stood infront of a wall.
Courtesy of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Image credit: Tom Arber

The Railway Children at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

The Railway Children at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, Bradford, 16 July–7 September 2025, From £10.00 - Book now

Steam-powered storytelling at its very best and perfectly staged for Bradford 2025, this much-loved classic is pulling into the station in spectacular style this summer.

The Railway Children at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Courtesy Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Image credit: Guy Farrow

Where to go near Get Outside with Bradford 2025

DoES Liverpool event space
Cinema
DoES Liverpool

DoES Liverpool is a vibrant community makerspace, co-working hub and creative tech venue in the heart of Liverpool’s Fabric District.

shop
Stretford
Shopping Centre
Stretford Mall

Stretford Mall has undergone a major transformation, turning a 60s shopping centre into a vibrant, community-led town centre. Led by Trafford Council and Bruntwood Works.

Penistone Hill Country Park
Bradford
Park
Penistone Hill Country Park

As part of Bradford 2025’s UK City of Culture programme, Penistone Hill plays host to outdoor events that celebrate the enduring connection between landscape, identity and creativity.

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds. Exhibitions are open for all to view. Encounter sculpture on your daily walk, or way to work or school.
Leeds
Event venue
Threshold Leeds

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds.

The Engine Room Notice Board
Southport
Event venue
The Engine Room

The Engine Room is a creative community hub in Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade, offering co-working space, cultural events and collaborative opportunities for artists, freelancers and educators.

Leeds
Gallery
The Mill Gallery

The Mill Gallery is an artist-run space in Leeds, supporting emerging artists to develop and showcase their work authentically.

What's on: Festivals

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Until
CinemaManchester
Wes World at HOME

Take a trip back into the world of Wes Anderson this May as HOME present a series of the acclaimed auteur’s most beloved films alongside The Phoenician Scheme.

From £7.95
FestivalsManchester
Universally Manchester Festival

With activities like poetry, physics, music, medicine, computing and creative writing (over 80 interactive stalls!), there’s loads to discover at Universally Manchester.

Free entry
Four young female dancers in folk costumes, one looking at the camera
ActivityCathedral Quarter
Góbéfest

Góbéfest, Manchester’s original international urban folk music and dance festival, is back with a killer line up and the best of Central Europe.

Free entry
The Herds, The Walk Productions
FestivalsManchester
MIF25: THE HERDS

Manchester International Festival 2025 kicks off with an awe-inspiring outdoor spectacle as THE HERDS take to the streets of Manchester, Rochdale, and Wigan.

Free entry

Culture Guides

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Harry Baker
Literature Events in the North

From environmental to experimental, our poetry and prose picks from around the North are focused on the unusual and the fun.

A young boy with a white sash around his left arm cries.
Cinema in the North

Outdoor cinema announcements, a major retrospective at HOME, and the best of indie cinema.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Experimental performance, thought-provoking new writing and our picks of Manchester International Festival - here’s what’s taking centre stage this summer.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.