Welcome !  There are more than 100 different “Newcastles” or “New Castles” around the globe, in many different countries and in many different languages. NEWCASTLES OF THE WORLD links them in friendship, and to share information/best practice/ideas through practical projects in the fields of tourism, culture, business and education and youth engagement.  

In just two minutes you can travel the world to see the location of many of our “Newcastles” – thanks to Out of the Square Media – https://outofthesquare.com/ – in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia for this great film.

The idea of linking towns and cities around the world that share the name “Newcastle” came from both Shinshiro in Japan and from Newcastle upon Tyne-based arts manager John Nicolaou. John created the “Newcastles of the World United” project, which resulted in a website and a book with this title, covering the Newcastles of the English-speaking world. The aim was to foster links of friendship, culture, education and tourism.

However, there are also many Newcastles in the non-English speaking world and it was the Mayor of one of them, in Shinshiro, Japan, who took the initiative to bring the Newcastles together via the Newcastles of the World summit, the first taking place in Japan in 1998 with delegates from Newcastle (South Africa), Neuburg-an-der-Donau (Germany), Neuchâtel (Switzerland), New Castle Indiana (USA), New Castle Pennsylvania (USA), Newcastle-under-Lyme (UK) and Neufchâteau (France) joining their hosts in Japan. Through this initiative from Japan, “Newcastles of the World” as we know it today was born !

Subsequent gatherings were held in Neuchâtel, Switzerland 2000, USA (Newcastles of Indiana & Pennsylvania) 2002, South Africa 2004 and 2010, UK 2006 (Newcastle-under-Lyme) and 2012 (Newcastle upon Tyne), Neuburg, Germany in 2008, the Czech Republic (Nové Hrady) in 2014, Newcastle, Ontario, Canada in 2016 and our 20th anniversary conference in Shinshiro, Japan in 2018.  Akhaltsikhe (Georgia), Jaunpils (Latvia), Newcastle, Ontario (Canada) and Newcastle, New South Wales (Australia) attended for the first time in 2012, as well as Nové Hrady. Nyborg (Denmark) attended for the first time in 2014, Nové Zamky (Slovakia) for the first time in 2016 and Herceg Novi (Montenegro) for the first time in 2018.

It had been planned that the next conference would be held in 2020, but the worldwide coronavirus pandemic caused its repeated postponement, so our most recent conference was in October 2023, back in Nové Hrady, when Neufchateau, Belgium attended for the first time.

Here are photos from the 17 principal partners within the Newcastles of the World organisation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyGKBeyWguI

Read an article here about what our Alliance does – Newcastles article

This is the constitution or charter (governance document) for Newcastles of the World –NOTW Charter

This is the membership application form – Application form October 2018

Here is a pop-up banner – Newcastles of the World pop-up 2

Here is a leaflet about Newcastles of the World – NotW flyer latest

A Newcastles of the World book was published in 2018 to mark our 20th anniversary.

This is where you can order a copy – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Newcastles-World-history-diversity-Newcastle/dp/0951048872

Below is a presentation, in pdf form, that you can download about Newcastles of the World. If you would like the full Powerpoint version of this presentation – a large file! – please email us at newcastlesoftheworld@gmail.com and we will get it to you via WeTransfer or similar.