The Young Cultural Bonus, a program promoted by the Ministry of Culture, kicks off its fifth edition. The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, presented the novelties of the Young Cultural Bonus at an event held at the Valle-Inclán Theater in Madrid.
For the first time, from this edition the Young Cultural Voucher will also be able to allocate the acquisition of musical instruments, materials for artistic creation and cultural courses.
This expansion in the products and activities available through the Bono responds to the will to promote creativity as part of the development of young people, as well as to promote culture from a more active and participatory role.
The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has indicated that “we expand the horizon of the Young Cultural Bond because we want it not only to serve to access culture, but also to make culture. Because culture is not only consumption, it is also practice, creativity, participation, community and personal development.”
Until October 31, people born in 2008 can apply for this assistance of 400 euros Choosing, for the first time, between two modalities:
- Modality 1: The total amount of aid may be allocated to a single category to be chosen from: courses and workshops on cultural content (in face-to-face and online formats), musical instruments or means of creation and artistic material.
- Modality 2: The 400 euros of aid may be distributed among these areas:
- Live and audiovisual arts, cultural heritage and means of artistic creation and artistic material (up to 200 euros): tickets and subscriptions for performing arts, live music, cinema, museums, goods belonging to the Spanish historical heritage, libraries, exhibitions, courses in face-to-face mode on subjects related to culture, scenic, literary, musical or audiovisual festivals, musical instruments, musical scores, photographic cameras and computer programs aimed specifically at production, creation and creative practice.
- Cultural products on physical support (up to 100 euros): books, magazines, press, or other periodicals, video games, vinyl records and CDs.
- Digital or online consumption (up to 100 euros): subscriptions to music, reading or listening platforms, or audiovisuals, purchase of audiobooks, digital books, songs or digital albums through music sales platforms, subscription to download multimedia files (including podcast), online courses on culture-related subjects and digital subscriptions to newspapers, magazines or other periodicals.
In addition, the Ministry of Culture is actively working to make the Young Cultural Bond more accessible and reach the most vulnerable sectors of the population. To do this, he has established a collaboration with the Third Sector Platform, with the aim of supporting the dissemination of the current call for the Young Cultural Voucher and helping young people from these sectors of the population to carry out the application process.
Requests
To apply for the Young Cultural Voucher 2026, people who have reached or will reach 18 years of age this year must register and carry out the application procedure on the web https://bonoculturajoven.gob.es/ until next October 31st.
It will be essential that, previously, the interested parties obtain one of these three forms of digital identification: Cl@ve with basic registration (which can be requested and obtained by video call), Cl@ve with advanced registration (in person and for those who have not yet reached the age of 18) or the Digital Certificate. Young people interested in applying for the Young Cultural Voucher can carry out the procedure on their own behalf or through the representation of an adult, for which it is necessary to attach the downloadable representation form on the website, correctly signed by the beneficiary. In these cases, the family book is not a document accrediting the representation.
Young people who reach the age of 18 in 2026 who are of Spanish nationality, have legal residence in Spain, whether they are asylum seekers, temporary displaced persons or ex-guardianship foreigners are entitled to this assistance. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, there are 9,277 potential beneficiaries in the Principality of Asturias, out of 561,459 nationwide.
About the Young Cultural Bonus
From the granting of the aid, young people have one year to use the 400 euros in the establishments adhered, 3,952 throughout Spain, 95 of them in Asturias. The Young Cultural Bonus works with a prepaid card that the beneficiary can have virtually on his mobile or receive physically at home.
The Young Cultural Bonus is regulated by the Royal Decree, with indefinite validity, which the Council of Ministers approved on March 21, 2023, at the proposal of the Minister of Culture. It has an endowment of 170 million euros in the General State Budgets extended.
In 2022, the first year of validity of this initiative, a total of 277,607 people obtained the Young Cultural Bonus throughout Spain. In 2023, the figure rose to 323,668. In 2024, there were 334,435 beneficiaries, while in its fourth edition, in 2025, there were 363,054 young people who enjoyed this aid. In total, in these four years of life of the Young Cultural Voucher, the number of young beneficiaries already reaches 1,298,764 people.
New image of the Young Cultural Bonus
The 2026 edition of the Young Cultural Bonus also premieres a new image and institutional advertising campaign. The new campaign, whose motto is ‘Culture makes it you’, starts from the concept that culture is alive and each generation builds their own collectively, either by creating it, consuming it or sharing it. With a language inspired by that of social networks, it is aimed at young audiences showing a diverse, plural, sometimes surprising culture that goes beyond the canonical, that can arise in the most unexpected places and that constantly evolves.
Supported by the expression ‘08’, a term with which people born in that year usually refer to themselves, the Bono campaign is starring young profiles who practice different cultural disciplines, from painting, music and dance to literary dissemination or gaming. The spot mixes images shot by a professional team with material recorded by some of these same novel artists in their own creative environment, from different parts of the country.