← Case studies/Bradford 2025

Customer story · Arts & Culture

From spreadsheets to symphony.

How Bradford 2025 orchestrated 1,000+ events and 25 major festivals for the UK's City of Culture year, all from a single source of truth.

Simple StackAirtableXeroMake12-month deployment · 5 → 100+ users
Use casesEvent managementCRMBudget trackingVenue mgmtSupplier directoryInventoryFunder reportingProject mgmt
12
Active modules
1,000+
Events managed
3,600+
Contacts in CRM
100+
Platform users

The starting line

The challenge

Planning over 1,000 events and 25 major festivals for the UK's City of Culture 2025 is a logistical challenge on a scale most organisations never face. When Bradford's team began, they were working across scattered spreadsheets, siloed systems, and a tangle of manual processes. Every team had its own way of tracking things, and none of those systems spoke to each other.

Budgets sat in one place, venue information in another, timelines in a third. As deadlines drew closer, the complexity didn't just grow. It multiplied.

“Bradford 2025's mission is to deliver a bold, inclusive, and ambitious year of culture. Achieving that takes more than great ideas. It takes infrastructure that can scale, adapt, and bring people together.”

The future, built on infrastructure

What we built together

Working closely with the Bradford team, Simple Stack customised a platform to power every phase of the programme, from early-stage visioning through to live event delivery. What started with 5 users has grown into a platform supporting a cross-functional team of 100+, all working from a single, centralised source of truth.

Inside the platform

Key modules

Contacts3,642 records
C
Carys TavenerArtist
S
St George's HallVenue
A
AV NorthwestSupplier
+3,639 more records
3,600+ contacts, suppliers, and venues in one living database.
Event calendarMarch 2025
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
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24
25
26
27
28
29
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31
6,200 live events and milestones managed in a master schedule.
Budget overviewFY 2025
£42M
Total programme budget
Spent
58%
Committed
27%
Forecast
15%
£42M. Xero-integrated budgeting, compliance, and funder reporting.
Asset inventory1,248 items
Staging rigs
36/48
Lighting kits
84/120
Audio packs
72/96
Radios
160/200
1,200+ physical assets tracked across a bespoke interface.

Outcomes

Results that matter

2,000%
Growth in adoption, from 5 users to 100+
1,000+
Events planned, tracked, and delivered
6,200
Milestones managed centrally
3,600
Contacts, suppliers, and venues
1,200
Venues catalogued and searchable
75%
Of all system use cases now handled in-platform

Bradford's system is already influencing other European Capital of Culture nominees, proof that the right infrastructure doesn't just support delivery. It shapes what you can dream up in the first place.

Let's talk

See the platform live.

Join the upcoming webinar or request a walkthrough tailored to your programme.