As Heritage Open Days is part of European Heritage Days being involved in the festival can help unlock doors to funding opportunities just by organising an event. This year 8 projects were awarded grants as part of the European Heritage Days Stories initiative celebrating local community heritage.
From England, the team at Love Oswestry secured €10,000 for their Memorial Hall project building on the legacy of their previous work and participation in Heritage Open Days. In recent years other event organisers have had similar success and been awarded grants including Oxford Open Doors & The Mills Archive Trust.
This investment in Oswestry will support a multi-strand project that connects place, people, and programming to make heritage more inclusive and community-driven. Key activities include Heritage Open Days 2025, with street artist Joseph Schneider’s pOSibility Machine, engaging over 500 people in architectural storytelling, and Love Oswestry 2026, a winter festival with art, music, and cultural sharing from communities such as Bulgarian and Ukrainian residents.
Being selected as one of the EHD stories is a real honour and joy for us. We are delighted that the Love Oswestry story and the work of our group of passionate creative partners has been recognised. The support and recognition from EHD gives us a wonderful bridge between what we have achieved and delivering our longer-term vision.
Additionally, this grant will support:
- a co-created heritage trail designed by local young people
- an Education Forum to connect schools and heritage groups
- the establishment of two Event Information Hubs
- and, a pilot for a new central creative and community hub in Oswestry
Huge congratulations to all of the successful projects across Europe and the Love Oswestry team! We're excited to see what they have in store for this year's festival and beyond.
Find out more
- EHD Awards - View the full list of winners who were awarded grants
- Love Oswestry - Learn more about Love Oswestry
- Get Involved - Want to be eligible to apply in future? Join our festival community