Last February, Sheffield was the proud host of the 26th Annual MOBO Awards, the UK’s biggest celebration of black music and culture.
It was the first time Sheffield hosted the event, and Sheffield City Council, organisations across the city and the local community put on a huge celebration as well as legacy activity, to welcome it to Sheffield.
The Awards brought a major boost to the city’s economy, worth around £1 million, and also put Sheffield in the spotlight and on the world, music stage.
In the lead up to the event, Sheffield hosted an impressive three days of events, MOBO Awards Sheffield – The Fringe, that involved all corners of the Sheffield community with more than 3500 people participating. Thousands of school children from across the city also got involved in the celebrations.
Now, one year on and as part of the legacy of hosting the event in the city, Sheffield City Council has announced a new music conference is set to take place in the city, this May.
“Sheffield really knows how to put on a celebration, and how to host a major, global event, and we showed that last year when the MOBO Awards were in town.
“It was a fantastic occasion, from the Fringe hosted by partners in the city and the local community, to the thousands of young people who got involved.
“One year on, and it is great to see be able to show the impact that hosting has had on the city, from boosting business, to seeing the thousands of local people that were involved, and now a whole new event to come off the back of it.”
Councillor Martin Smith, Chair of the Economic Development and Skills Committee at Sheffield City Council
A year of culture
Since last year’s MOBO Awards, the city has much to celebrate in the way of culture and events.
From the adoption of a new city-wide Culture Strategy, which aims provide a road map for future development of the creative and cultural sectors in Sheffield, to the announcement that a new major events strategy would be developed.
Sheffield already has an excellent reputation as a city of major events, festivals and conferences.
But the strategy would seek to take Sheffield's event's offer a step further – attracting more events to the city, better events and by creating a framework to ensure events hosted have a lasting, positive impact on local people, local businesses, communities and the Sheffield economy.
Last year not only saw the city host the MOBO Awards, but it also hosted major sporting events like the start of the third leg of the Tour of Britain and the Women's Olympic Ice Hockey Qualifiers.
Alongside successfully bidding for some of the most high-profile and internationally significant events, Sheffield is also home to a network of its own home-grown festivals.
2024 saw the launch of a brand-new podcast festival, Crossed Wires, attracting talent from across the UK and beyond, to Sheffield.
The city is also home to DocFest, which last year celebrated its 30th year in the city.
The city also has a strong track-record for bidding for and hosting a range of world-leading conferences, and last year hosted the International Coeliac Disease Symposium and the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons.
Other cultural milestones have included the news that national music youth charity, Orchestras for All, and English Touring Opera were to make Sheffield their new home, both relocating from London.
Harmony Works Trust, a local charity working to restore Sheffield’s Grade II* Listed Canada House in the city centre into a state-of-the-art music hub for South Yorkshire, has also reached multiple milestones in the project over the past year. These include receiving multi-million pounds worth of funding from the Arts Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, taking them one step closer to transforming this local heritage building.
Music City
Inspired by the MOBO Awards in 2024, the exciting plans for Canada House, and Sheffield’s prolific musical heritage, Sheffield City Council will be bringing the city together to explore how Sheffield's musical fabric, including its grassroots venues, festivals, education centres and larger institutions, can be celebrated and supported as an essential part of a creative and cultural Sheffield.
The event will be held in the Millennium Galleries and will include speakers, presentations and discussions across the music scene in Sheffield, and will take place this May. It will be followed by a celebration in the Winter Garden, much like last year's Sheffield MOBO Awards – The Fringe event, with music, food, products and performances that showcase Sheffield’s Music of Black Origin Talent.
The event will take place on Thursday 15 May with tickets being released in the coming weeks. Sign up for the Sheffield Culture Bulletin here, to find out more.