It’s Dundee’s Big Day this Wednesday.
At long last, the home of Oor Wullie, The Broons and Desperate Dan will discover if it’s to become UK City of Culture 2017.
If Dundee beats Leicester, Swansea Bay and Hull it’ll be a minor miracle. Bookies say Dundee is the outsider and Swansea Bay the 2/1 favourite but not on the strength of their bids.
Dundee’s plans include a festival of football featuring AC Milan and AS Roma and a spectacular light installation spanning the Tay Bridge. Swansea’s highlight is a festival of unsigned musicians. Hmmm.
But maybe it’s time for a southern city to win.
Derry is the UK’s current City of Culture and a highlight was the “return of Saint Columba” in a curragh rowed by fifteen monks across from Iona.
The re-enacted journey demonstrated the proximity between Northern Ireland and Scotland, and that Celtic connection could yet count against Dundee.
Two northern cities in a row?
Not likely. And it’s possible the referendum factor is also at work.
Why should judges bestow the 2017 title on Dundee if Scots might have voted to leave the UK by then?
Politics, politics. It may be naive to think any award can bypass these sordid realities. But if it could, Dundee would surely win hands down.
Back in the ’80s, Scotland’s fourth city was grim.
The multis high-rise flats with high unemployment were no-man’s-lands. Jute and jam were gone. Timex, too. The cashline company NCR was in decline.
And then . . . something happened. It may have been the day some bright sparks founded the cultural hub at the DCA. Or the day Development boss Mike Galloway returned from his award-winning restoration of Glasgow’s Gorbals to turn his sights on the concrete pick and mix of Dundee’s Waterfront.
The construction of the Tay Road Bridge in the 1960’s destroyed the heart of old Dundee.
The beloved docks were in-filled to accommodate ugly spiralling concrete traffic ramps. The elegant Victorian facades of two railways stations were demolished. The Tonk Ballroom and the old swimming pool were flattened. The busy bus terminal became a car park. The ‘Fifies’ crossing the silvery Tay sailed away for ever. A people’s place became a car-focussed guddle.
Roads, ramps, car parks, bridges and concrete divided city from sea and politicians from an increasingly angry public. Actor and Dundee Ambassador Brian Cox said: “It was so disturbing to see the mess, I simply avoided it.”
But then it all changed.
The ramps, bridges, Olympia Leisure Centre, Earl Grey Hotel and council HQ Tayside House have been demolished and a new civic space is emerging.
A replacement Olympia has opened and new council offices have won design awards. The elegant, central but long derelict Tay Hotel is being restored by the Malmaison chain and the grotty station is set for a hotel-funded revamp. But the jewel in the crown isn’t even built yet. The only UK outpost of the celebrated V&A museum will open in a spectacular waterfront Japanese-designed building in 2017.
Modest locals don’t shout about Dundee. But winning the City of Culture 2017 title would be the icing on the cake for a transformed city. Can Dundee pull one more rabbit out of the hat?
Here’s hoping the 2017 bid from this plucky, energetic, wonderful wee city will do the impossible and defeat the pessimists and the bookies.
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