What would you love to see in Dundee in 2017?

As people will know Dundee is in the final four for the title of UK City of Culture in 2017.  This is something that I have been campaigning for since the concept of UK City of Culture was launched in 2009.  I think that Dundee has a very strong case and I hope that we will be named UK City of Culture 2017.

The people at the We Dundee website, which did so much to promote the bid have relaunched their website and they are now asking the question 'What would you love to see in Dundee in 2017?'  Please visit the website to give your own example, I'm going to outline a few ideas of my own.

In 2017 I want to see Dundee put on a cultural festival that attracts people from all over the world to Dundee, but more importantly I want Dundee to have a festival that has something for everybody in the city.  I want the V&A Dundee to be open and hosting exhibitions which bring people to the city and are also for the people of the city. I want to see many of the headline events of the City of Culture year taking place in Community Centres and other facilities across the city.  The City of Culture must break out of the cultural quarter and city centre (important though they are and be for everyone).


Dundee's bid to be UK City of Culture 2017 getting a great send-off

The current UK City of Culture is the city of Derry I think that Dundee should take the baton from Derry and celebrate the strong links between Dundee and Ulster.  My PhD research was on this topic and there is the remarkable statistic that in 1851 one in five of the population of Dundee had been born in Ireland, mostly in Ulster.  Dundee flourished at this time on the basis of people leaving rural Ulster to work in the textile industry in Dundee, in Derry there was a very similar phenomenon.  We should look at the links of these two textile producing cities.  We should look at the influence of the many students who come to Dundee today from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  We should look at the work of someone like Seamus Heaney who is a honorary graduate of the University of Dundee and comes from just outside Derry.

I want to see an international football match played in Dundee in 2017 at either Dens or Tannadice, or I am being greedy one at Tannadice and one at Dens.  I want to see major events happening on the Tay, I recall seeing speed boat racing on the Tay before or perhaps a Tall Ships event, the City of Culture must make good use of our fabulous setting on the banks of the Tay.

Whatever your views please visit the We Dundee website and tell them what you would love to see in Dundee in 2017 during Dundee's year as UK City of Culture.