BELFAST’S disastrously ill-conceived bid to be City of Culture 2008 has been slammed by the Auditor for its lack of control over spending. Suzanne Breen hits the nail on the head on why the campaign was doomed to fail from the start – an elitist-run, half-hearted, ill-thought-out campaign combined with a total lack of vision for the city by those who run it.
We clearly couldn’t care less about our architectural heritage, there is no cafe culture outside Botanic Avenue, bars were afraid to allow patrons to drink in outside seated areas until very recently, our shops close early, no-one lives right in our soulless city centre (a legacy of the bombing campaigns that leaves Royal Avenue and elsewhere deserted every night), and most bars and clubs close at 1am even on weekends.
If Belfast’s culture is primarily defined by a lack of imagination, creativity and risk-taking why on earth could we have expected to even compete against anywhere else?
Culture? What culture?
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