2013 UK City of Culture: Derry/Londonderry announced as winner
Written by Andy Hayes
Update 15 July 2010: The winner of the 2013 UK City of Culture is Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland.
Update: The 4 shortlisted cities are:
How are you rooting for? The winner will be announced on Thursday 15 July 2010.
On the heels of last’s year’s success of Liverpool’s award of 2008 European City of Culture, the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has launched a programme to award one city the 2013 UK City of Culture. The city will get funding and host a number of events throughout 2013 to promote culture and attractions in that city.
My question to you: who’s got your vote? It’s a tough list!
- Aberdeen
- Barnsley
- Belfast
- Birmingham
- Bradford
- Brighton & Hove
- Carlisle
- Chester
- Chichester
- Chorley Council
- City of Bath
- Cornwall
- Derby
- Derry City
- Durham
- Gloucester & Cheltenham
- Hull
- Ipswich & Haven Gateway
- Leicester City
- Manchester
- Norwich
- Oxford
- Pennine Lancashire
- Reading
- Sheffield
- “The Countryside”
- Urban South Hampshire
- Wakefield
Weight in with your vote in the comments.
I have strong links to about 10 of those places! I’d like it to be Gloucester & Cheltenham, since that’s nearest to where I live and there might be cool events… but if I was making the decision for real, I’d probably go for Oxford.
The vote has to be for Pennine Lancashire. The old mill towns of Burnley, Blackburn, Accrington, little Bacup — stone built towns set in breathtaking countryside — fell upon hard times but are now on the up. New houses, new schools, a new university and now a new Premiership football team. The City of Culture would make a greater impact here than in any of the more prosperous areas and would be a real celebration of heritage, history, and community culture.
Let’s take this list and knock off the places that aren’t places- ‘Urban South Hampshire’ and ‘Pennine Lancashire’ sound like gimmicky names dreamed up by overpaid marketing people who prefer to ignore real local identities. ‘The Countryside’ is clearly someone taking the mickey.
There are plenty of real places on the list that could justly claim to be cultural leaders, but my vote- out of pure personal attachment- is Durham. The cathedral, the castle, the history the university, the museums. And you can even find it on a map- surely a key qualification for any capital?
It seems that everyone has their own favourites here. My own are Birmingham, Manchester and Durham. I’m not sure what criteria the judges will be using to select the 2010 UK City of Culture.
I think that Sheffield should be the 2010 UK cluture city, my second option i would say is Wakefield and my 3RD option has to be Hull, i mean Hull tryed to be the Uks best city culture once
Why does nobody have any experience of Norwich? It is the most beautiful city and full of history. The arts and culture here is abundant. People don’t visit here enough as it is out of the way but they are missing out. It has made the final four along with Derry, Birmingham and Sheffield.
Just hope the city can be succesful and put the place on the map!
Scott – I’ve been to Norwich a couple of times, only on day trips and thought it was a lovely city. I visited Birmingham for a couple of nights on my UK Summer 09 Blog Tour and there’s certainly plenty going on there. I haven’t been to Sheffield for ages and have never visited Derry.