The clock is ticking down and as the deadline looms for all contenders to submit their bids it’s time to take a quick look at Leicester’s competition for the UK City of Culture 2017 crown. The long-list has some great cities vying for the gong and if there’s one thing we can all be sure of, the competition will bring out the very best the bidders have to offer and in the process, help each of them rediscover who they are and what their ‘culture’ actually is. When you think about it, it’s actually not a bad idea all this City of Culture malarky; it’s like sitting on the analyst’s couch for cities and sometimes it’s just what the doctor ordered.
To get an idea if Leicester City of Culture 2017 has a chance have a look at our quick overview of Leicester.
The long list covers the length and breadth of the UK meaning that what’s on offer will (we all hope) be as varied and as interesting and vibrant as possible. So who’s on the list? Here they are in glorious alphabetical order: Aberdeen, Chester, Dundee, East Kent (covering Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone and Thanet), Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea, Hull, Leicester, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, and Swansea Bay (covering Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath and Port Talbot). As you can see, the list does indeed cover a lot of ground and in the case of the bids from both East Kent and Swansea Bay, they cover huge areas not just cities. Now, this could be seen as a little odd as both of these bids are almost regional rather than city-based but I’m sure the organisers and all of those involved are happy with the interpretation; they certainly won’t have a ring to them like Leicester City of Culture 2017 has.
So, onto the first UK City of Culture 2017 contender…
Aberdeen City of Culture 2017?
Like a lot of the cities in the race, Aberdeen has some big, high profile names backing them. In Aberdeen’s case they’ve got the Big Yin himself; the multi-talented, endlessly morphing Billy Conolly. In a recent interview he seemed to allude to the Aberdeen bid by saying “Aberdeen becoming UK City of Culture would be a great thing. In addition to its many other cultural attributes, the heritage of traditional music and ballads in Aberdeen and the north east is outstanding and deserves wider recognition. I hope this can be achieved.” Of course on top of this Aberdeen’s heritage owes a lot to its sea faring ways; its recent history points to a time when it was one of the largest fishing ports in the UK, which in turn brought about the unique culture that industry and commerce always stirs up in working cities. This musical bent is further reinforced by Dame Evelyn Glennie also nailing her various percussive instruments to the mast. So Aberdeen, along with the usual mix of all thing Scottish we’re safe to assume, will be putting forward a bid that aims to make a lot of noise.
Chester City of Culture 2017?
For a lot of people, Chester means only one thing – Hollyoaks. Now that in itself would be reason enough to let them win, just so they can refocus people’s perception of their city, but thankfully for a lot of other more enlightened people, Chester has a lot of other things to be proud of. Like Leicester, Cheater has a big Roman history and over the years has been a focal point for power and commerce. Its medieval city walls and stunning cathedral offer the kind of backdrop that the locals and the tourists love in equal measure, but to keep one foot in the modern era they’re also a Fair Trade city (how progressive is that!). Chester, owing to its charming good looks is a coach tour destination town and perhaps because of this and their awareness of what tourism means and how to promote the best of what they have, they have a better appreciation of what this competition can do and its transformative effect. Culture minister Ed Vaizey, attending a 2-day LGA conference hit the nail on the head when he said: “Culture encourages tourism, inward investment and creates a better place for people to live.” He welcomed Chester’s bid to become UK City of Culture in 2017 and told delegates “Chester is using cultural investment as a catalyst for inward investment.” There’s no doubt Chester has the good looks and the smarts, but the real question is can they bring something new and vibrant to the table?
Dundee City of Culture 2017?
Similarly to Aberdeen, Dundee has a long history that, like many UK cities in their post-industrial guise, have seen the glow come of their crown; and like Aberdeen it too has big names doing everything to put a shine on it. Dundee has Hollywood’s own Brian Cox (not to be confused with the fashionable to fancy Dr. Brian Cox, part scientist, part dire 90’s pop peddler) and Lorraine Kelly blowing their respective trumpets. Dundee has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance over the last few years and its reinvention has seen big things happening around the city. Dundee publisher D.C. Thompson always had a an effect on UK culture that far exceeded the borders of Dundee as it printed The Beano, The Dandy and now, strangely, owns Friends Reunited, the pre-Facebook Facebook, but now this city is firing on all cylinders. The centrepiece is the ship Discovery and the Discovery Point Museum, a burgeoning cultural sector that has attracted upcoming ‘V&A at Dundee’, which will undoubtably make the city visible to both national and international visitors; the Dundee Rep Theatre that continues to crank out award-winning shows, and Dundee Contemporary Arts, which has a reputation for cutting-edge art exhibitions and a programme of international cinema. In short, it appears Dundee has already rediscovered itself and its now on a mission to make sure the rest of us rediscover it to.
East Kent City of Culture 2017? (covering Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone and Thanet)
It’s a strange bidding area, wide and sprawling and not a city, so perhaps it’s fitting to have support from a couple of people who have always gone their own way; odd-bod design noodler Wayne Hemingway and the architect Sir David Chipperfield. Sir David knows the value of culture and said “The creative revival that I have witnessed in East Kent – and had the pleasure of playing a part in through my work with Turner Contemporary in Margate – is truly astonishing. The area stands as a shining example of the positive role arts and culture can play in driving economic regeneration and social growth.” And he’s right of course. Kent and the surrounding area has had a rich history. A natural home to UK beer, Kent has hops in the blood and is the home of some amazing breweries. Canterbury‘s history stretches back into the mists of time and part of the area is protected by UNESCO. Like Chester, it has stunning architecture and is the type of tourist destination that warm summer days were made for. Thomas Becket’s murder there put it firmly on the map back in 1170 and its cathedral was a destination for pious Christians across Europe. Then there’s Kent County Cricket Ground, a destination for pilgrims of another type. As with Chester, the East Kent’s bid for UK City of Culture 2017 has the backdrop that well-developed, modern cities just don’t have, but could its wide, bucolic bid area be more of a curse than a blessing? It’s a big area and people, sometimes, can be lazy. The more spread out things are the harder it can be to generate the kind of traffic and traction organisers and promoters crave.
Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea City of Culture 2017?
Hastings is made of history. Few places in the UK have played such an important role in the very shaping of our nation. Our modern Britain was born a thousand years ago in 1066 in this important port. The battle of Hastings was a truly formative event, Saxon rule fell and the Norman kings took control; we became a new nation and Hastings became a real town in 1069. It became one of the ‘Cinque Ports‘ further cementing its importance and significantly connecting the UK to the continent – and more specifically France – and for a time at the end of the 1800, it was one of the singularly most popular ‘health’ resorts in the UK. Of course things have changed a lot since then, it’s no longer a big, important port. It’s now just a small, well-presented south coast town that does that seaside thing that only British towns can do. Well looked after Deco architecture rubs along with well preserved Victorian Gothic, funicular railways (they have 2!) still grab the tourists’ attention and Victorian seafront properties get the kind of longing, misty-eyed looks from passersby normally reserved for good looking specimens of the opposite sex. Since 1920 Hastings has hosted the Hastings International Chess Congress and a testament to its global importance in the world of table top battle is that every World Champion before Garry Kasparov (except Bobby Fischer) played at the Hastings congress. But here’s the rub – perhaps this year Hastings is out of its league for the UK City of Culture 2017 challenge. It’s playing a game with some bigger, more experienced players, ones that have cut their teeth in the modern era and have, at least at a quick glance, fancier moves more to offer.
Well, there you have it. It’s hard to encapsulate what each of the cities really have to offer in such a short space but this tiny taster gives us a quick feel for some of the things that might be used to theme their bids.
In part two it’s the middle bidders for UK City of Culture 2017, Hull, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Southampton, and in the final instalment Southend-on-Sea and Swansea Bay. How will they stack up – or more importantly, how will Leicester’s bid fair against theirs? We’ll see.
In part three we’re down to the last two! Southend-on-Sea and Swansea Bay.
Got an opinion on how Leicester stacks up against these odds? Let us know.
Think others would like to read about the competition – please share – let’s get Leicester talking.
To get an idea if Leicester City of Culture 2017 has a chance have a look at our quick overview of Leicester.
[…] already covered the full contenders list in previous posts (have a look at the Dundee overview here, Hull’s chances here and Swansea Bay’s overview here) and also taken the time to look […]