Ponta Delgada – Azores 2027 will not be European Capital of Culture

We congratulate Évora, for winning the title, and the cities of Braga and Aveiro for all the work done so far. 

We thank all of those who, directly or indirectly, contributed to the construction of this bid. From the Ponta Delgada municipality, we've created, in a rare moment of archipelagic cooperation, a partnership with all the municipalities of the Azores. We thank all of them. We thank the Regional Government of the Azores, for the compromise, as co-promotor. To all the institutions of the azores that have created partnerships and believed in them, our sincere thank you. To all the artists, cultural stakeholders, businesses, academia, and the over 1.500 people whom we talked to, we thank for the generosity. Only with the contribution of everyone is it possible to build such an extensive and human project.

Ponta Delgada, and the Azores, will not get the title of European Culture in 2027. However, the work that has been done thus far will not be lost. There is a Cultural Strategy Ponta Delgada 2030, that will be implemented in the next decade, and that embodies most of the principles that guided this bid.

There is also a dialogue legacy, mutual encounter and knowledge that has generated empowerment, a partnership network and allowed to dream of a transformation led by culture. The bid started a path of democracy and cultural capacitation that must be continued, and that should result in more professionalised Cultural and Creative Sectors, that are more intertwined with other sectors.

This bid was created by the will of a Civic Movement, of around 800 people. This mobilisation was always the candidacy's biggest strength, and will keep on being an important engine of mobilisation.

The team will be working until March, to guarantee the legacy of the projects and the partnerships established during this process. 

The work continues!