Limerick City of Culture 2014

pigtown

It was recently announced that Pat Cox, he of European Parliament fame, is to chair the governing group for the City of Culture. Also on the group are rugby player Paul O'Connell , Riverdance composer Bill Whelan, and Arts Council director Orlaith McBride. I'm quite sure that these people have extensive contacts in their respective fields and will provide strong leadership of the City of Culture. A programme of events is to be released by June.

A few suggestions for the year;

Live in Limerick
Two separate Bank Holiday Weekends, maybe June and August, organise major music festivals to take over the city. Stage a big headline gig in Thomond Park or the Gaelic Grounds (currently seeking permission to hold gigs) on the first night, and smaller gigs in the castle courtyard (which will be redeveloped by then), the Franciscan church on Henry St., and the Milk Market the next night. At the same time have free music in the parks during the day and work with the pubs and other venues to offer live music that weekend too.

Festival of Film
Phase one of the Theatre Royal redevelopment will be complete by February 2014 and a major film festival would be a great way to launch the new venue. Arrange for Fresh Film Festival and LIT Film Festival to take place at the same time, with the Royal as their base, and with a major role for the Belltable aswell. Combine these with some screenings at the Milk Market and talks by people in the industry and hopefully you have the makings of a decent festival. A major coup would be securing the services of Secret Cinema.

sleepyman

pigtown wrote: »

It was recently announced that Pat Cox, he of European Parliament fame, is to chair the governing group for the City of Culture. Also on the group are rugby player Paul O'Connell , Riverdance composer Bill Whelan, and Arts Council director Orlaith McBride. I'm quite sure that these people have extensive contacts in their respective fields and will provide strong leadership of the City of Culture. A programme of events is to be released by June.

A few suggestions for the year;

Live in Limerick
Two separate Bank Holiday Weekends, maybe June and August, organise major music festivals to take over the city. Stage a big headline gig in Thomond Park or the Gaelic Grounds (currently seeking permission to hold gigs) on the first night, and smaller gigs in the castle courtyard (which will be redeveloped by then), the Franciscan church on Henry St., and the Milk Market the next night. At the same time have free music in the parks during the day and work with the pubs and other venues to offer live music that weekend too.

Festival of Film
Phase one of the Theatre Royal redevelopment will be complete by February 2014 and a major film festival would be a great way to launch the new venue. Arrange for Fresh Film Festival and LIT Film Festival to take place at the same time, with the Royal as their base, and with a major role for the Belltable aswell. Combine these with some screenings at the Milk Market and talks by people in the industry and hopefully you have the makings of a decent festival. A major coup would be securing the services of Secret Cinema.

Both great ideas-I'm not sure the well-heeled residents around Clareview/Ennis Road/North Circular are going to allow gigs in the Gaelic Grounds-understandable if you have the likes of the Swedish House Mafia.
They would only attract alot of Knacks but if you had bands with a more non-threatening fanbase it would be great.
Always thought that the Castle was totally under used to be honest.

ZombieBride

City of culture my hole. We now not only don't have a cinema in the city centre but with the loss of the Belltable no longer have a theatre in the city centre. I stand by my post above.

Raiser

ZombieBride wrote: »

City of culture my hole. We now not only don't have a cinema in the city centre but with the loss of the Belltable no longer have a theatre in the city centre. I stand by my post above.

Hmmmm - It is a bit stark and laughable, like being invited to host the Olympics when you don't even have a Stadium/running track/tracksuit/pair of sports socks

Laneyh

pigtown wrote: »

Some major talk of designating the city as a city of culture for 2014 in todays Leader (not online yet). I don't think it's an official EU designation like Cork in 2005, rather like Derry this year which is a UK city of culture.

Obviously no details yet but I think this could be a great thing for Limerick. We already have a large cultural infrastructure and I see a new theatre in Mary I, the Lime Tree Theatre, is opening soon. I would imagine a lot of touring National productions from Opera Ireland, the Abbey Theatre and possibly collections from the National Gallery and National Museums would be involved (well they would be if I was in charge). A largescale advertising campaign could then really change people's perception of the city.

So what do people think?

Well it worked for Liverpool in the UK - so its definitely worth a shot.

Laneyh

ZombieBride wrote: »

I just started thinking, it doesn't really matter how many culture nights we have if people don't go out to them. A lot Limerick people (yes I'm going to generalise here) don't attend events even after they say they will.

There have been so many events that I've attended where the numbers aren't even in double figures, and this is not due to the lack of publicity by the promoters or interest in the event but solely due to people not turning out (the facebook event "going" section my have 300 people but only 10 show up, this is the rule not the exception). This especially the case if the venue does not serve alcohol, as far as I have seen.

How do we get people to turn out without walking them into town holding their hands?

Thats a tough one, maybe include a transport option in the ticket price but then you would people to definitely book their ticket in advance.
Facebook or any other online format is unreliable, people click 'going' and don't give it a second thought.

Having BYOB nights might help. Other than that I don't really know.
Was there much on for culture night last year? If so did many people attend ?

Cork wasn't exactly overflowing with cultural institutions the year it was made city of culture. With enough enthusiasm and creativity behind the camapign it could be achievable

ZombieBride

Laneyh wrote: »

Having BYOB nights might help. Other than that I don't really know.
Was there much on for culture night last year? If so did many people attend ?

There was quite a bit on for that this year, the few that I went to varied in numbers, any of the ones where the children could get hands on involved in were busy (City Gallery, Print Makers)

lockman

ZombieBride wrote: »

There was quite a bit on for that this year, the few that I went to varied in numbers, any of the ones where the children could get hands on involved in were busy (City Gallery, Print Makers)

I visited the Hunt on culture night where they had a few activities for children, and it was very busy in there.

Kess73

Laneyh wrote: »

Well it worked for Liverpool in the UK - so its definitely worth a shot.

No comparison at all there. I live in Limerick, but Liverpool is my home town. They are the two cities I am in the most now, and the two cities I was in the most growing up. There are a lot of similarities between the two cities and the residents, but Limerick cannot be looking at the Liverpool year as some kind of template as what was put in place in Liverpool for 2008 simply cannothappen in Limerick in under 12months time.

The money that was pumped into Liverpool projects years in advance was very substantial, not to mention the fact that the main planning committees were up and running well in advance of what the Limerick one will be.


The Liverpool 1 project also had stages of it's opening staggered to coincide with the City Of Culture event. The Liverpool 1 side of things alone came to almost one billion pounds worth of investment.

There were a hell of a lot of massive events in Liverpool that year, and also all the main sporting clubs were involved (many of whom would have a far greater world wide profile than any in Limerick have).


Also Liverpool has an actual Cultural Quarter that has full sized art galleries, museums, libraries etc all in the one area, the very same area that is world reknowned for it's architecture and that is seen as the greatest example of Neo classical architecture anywhere in Europe.


I think it would be quite unfair to expect Limerick's run as the city of culture to even be a fraction of that of Liverpool's and it would be doing Limerick a disservice imho to expect it or even hope for it.

Limerick needs to aim for events etc that it can actually hold and deliver, and not try to match past cities that had financial and cultural riches that Limerick simply does not have.


Limerick should be looking to do itself proud for the year using what she has available to her, and not be looking at what others did as the standard.

Clareman

Wasn't Liverpool the European Capital of Culture as well? Isn't that a far larger thing rather than being 1 of the cities of culture?

Kess73

Clareman wrote: »

Wasn't Liverpool the European Capital of Culture as well? Isn't that a far larger thing rather than being 1 of the cities of culture?

Yep it was.


There were just too many massive events linked to the Liverpool year, not to mention the huge amount of planning (years and years of high level planning and the large areas of the actual city that were being regenerated were timed to finish in time for the event) and levels of financial investment that Limerick cannot hope to match.

I would love to see Limerick do herself proud in 2014, but it has to be on her own terms, and not with the Limerick events being held up against those previously held in cities with far more in their locker in nearly every department.

ZombieBride

We need our museum to have it's own building.

pigtown

ZombieBride wrote: »

I just started thinking, it doesn't really matter how many culture nights we have if people don't go out to them. A lot Limerick people (yes I'm going to generalise here) don't attend events even after they say they will.

Maybe you have a point but I mean if a business wasn't attracting customers it could fail or it could offer what customers want, so maybe the problem is that the events that are being put on just don't interest people.

ZombieBride wrote: »

City of culture my hole. We now not only don't have a cinema in the city centre but with the loss of the Belltable no longer have a theatre in the city centre. I stand by my post above.

As I stated above The Royal will be up and running by next year and the Belltable has a state of the art cinema system. And the theatre hasn't closed permanently, just for the month of January so it can work on a restructuring plan. I'm curious, where do you judge the city centre to stop?, because there is a major new theatre in Mary I, and a cinema on the Ennis Rd.

Raiser wrote: »

Hmmmm - It is a bit stark and laughable, like being invited to host the Olympics when you don't even have a Stadium/running track/tracksuit/pair of sports socks

What facility don't we have that you would like? Personally I would like a modern museum such as the Ulster Museum in Belfast, or a Limerick War Museum, detailing the city's many battles, seiges, etc.

Clareman wrote: »

Wasn't Liverpool the European Capital of Culture as well? Isn't that a far larger thing rather than being 1 of the cities of culture?

The thing with Liverpool and also Cork is that they were European Capitals of Culture, with a budget from the EU and in Cork's case I'm sure the government threw some money at it. It was the height of the boom after all. Limerick's designation is solely an Irish initiative and given that it's essentially a pilot project, comparisons to Liverpool and Cork are not helpful. Saying that, the city council are making no secret of the fact that they see this as a foundation to applying for European City of Council toward the end of the decade.

Cityslicker1

sleepyman wrote: »

Both great ideas-I'm not sure the well-heeled residents around Clareview/Ennis Road/North Circular are going to allow gigs in the Gaelic Grounds-understandable if you have the likes of the Swedish House Mafia.
They would only attract alot of Knacks but if you had bands with a more non-threatening fanbase it would be great.
Always thought that the Castle was totally under used to be honest.

I was thinking the same. I was in Edinburgh recently and the castle is lit up like a beacon at night. I know the castle in Edinburgh is on a hill in the city centre which makes it more imposing than the castle in Limerick but it still deserves to be highlighted. It should be glowing at night. It's crazy the way it's left in the dark, a main landmark that the other cities in the country would only die for. Why is it just left there and made nothing of??I don't get it. They should do something to Nicholas street where the castle is, like the folk park in Bunratty, totally transform it to a medevil street leading up to the castle.

pigtown

http://www.limerickleader.ie/lifestyle/entertainment-arts/wallace-appointed-to-top-city-of-culture-position-in-limerick-1-4887621
Karl Wallace, former Belltable director and current Siamsa Tire, Tralee director has been appointed as artistic director of the City of Culture. It's a two year post so I'd imagine he will also have a role in how to take advantage of the year's legacy.

Buckeye

pigtown wrote: »

Some major talk of designating the city as a city of culture for 2014 in todays Leader (not online yet). I don't think it's an official EU designation like Cork in 2005, rather like Derry this year which is a UK city of culture.

Obviously no details yet but I think this could be a great thing for Limerick. We already have a large cultural infrastructure and I see a new theatre in Mary I, the Lime Tree Theatre, is opening soon. I would imagine a lot of touring National productions from Opera Ireland, the Abbey Theatre and possibly collections from the National Gallery and National Museums would be involved (well they would be if I was in charge). A largescale advertising campaign could then really change people's perception of the city.

So what do people think?

The negative comments on this board show a pretty narrow view of what makes "culture". Limerick's culture is not the same as London's or Paris's or New York's, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have it's own heritage and history that can be highlighted and appreciated. Limerick's sport culture alone is worth showing off, not to mention its innovation in military, business and farming. And yes, the knife-wielding psychos, too - maybe not as romantic and dramatic as Jack the Ripper, but there's more than enough crime and criminology to study.

And let's not forget Limerick's culture of tearing down anyone's attempts to bring in new resources and make the city a better place...

pigtown

A new international arts festival is being proposed by the university to run as part of the city of culture. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/details-for-proposed-international-arts-festival-for-limerick-unveiled-1.1376954
Three weekends in May are being mentioned.

nrsire

Limerick really is the absolute pits! Desperate desperate place, lived there for 20 years and will never ever go back to live there. It's a glorified town not a city. Most of it is closed down and run down and the city Center for lack of a better word is just cheap in every way. No point in trying to revive the place, let it rot in its own filth.

jmch81

nrsire wrote: »

Limerick really is the absolute pits! Desperate desperate place, lived there for 20 years and will never ever go back to live there. It's a glorified town not a city. Most of it is closed down and run down and the city Center for lack of a better word is just cheap in every way. No point in trying to revive the place, let it rot in its own filth.

Thanks for your feed back! Very constructive and in topic of the thread.

pilate 1

nrsire wrote: »

Limerick really is the absolute pits! Desperate desperate place, lived there for 20 years and will never ever go back to live there. It's a glorified town not a city. Most of it is closed down and run down and the city Center for lack of a better word is just cheap in every way. No point in trying to revive the place, let it rot in its own filth.

would assume limerick in no rush to have you back:( troll somewhere else please

marienbad

nrsire wrote: »

Limerick really is the absolute pits! Desperate desperate place, lived there for 20 years and will never ever go back to live there. It's a glorified town not a city. Most of it is closed down and run down and the city Center for lack of a better word is just cheap in every way. No point in trying to revive the place, let it rot in its own filth.

Why not tell us what you really think !

bazz26

I wouldn't bother replying to that, to be honest.

ZombieBride

I was talking to someone in the City of Culture office the other day and they have no section to deal with Heritage/Historical Culture, I offered them my services but was told to email them in my ideas (so I can do a lot of work for free or they can take me ideas and get someone else to do them for free) as they were hoping to have a plan for next year ready by June, but yet they only have three aspects to it (from what I can recall from the phone call).

It's pocket-lining from the usual suspects I'm afraid, just like The Gathering.

seachto7

Buckeye wrote: »

......Limerick's sport culture alone is worth showing off, not to mention its innovation in military, business and farming....

I think this is a load of boll*x at this stage. Do we just promote frat boys and nothing else?

Most tourists who come here aren't interested in ROG or POC. They don't even know who they are. They're not interested in GAA either. Or soccer.

Limerick isn't the most cultural place in the world. Tis what it is. People aren't going to come here for a cultural experience, that's for sure, but after being in Galway a few weekends ago, Limerick is in serious sh*t. Galway is obviously more of a tourist trap than Limerick is, and the centre of Galway was heaving. Not that I'm even much of a fan of Galway, but I happened to be in Limerick at 6 o clock on Sunday evening, and it was dead. Empty. Lots of scumbags and drugged up lads wandering around. There were a few tourists who looked very nervous!! It looked a sorry sight, sad to say.....

Silentcorner

seachto7 wrote: »

I think this is a load of boll*x at this stage. Do we just promote frat boys and nothing else?

Most tourists who come here aren't interested in ROG or POC. They don't even know who they are. They're not interested in GAA either. Or soccer.

Limerick isn't the most cultural place in the world. Tis what it is. People aren't going to come here for a cultural experience, that's for sure, but after being in Galway a few weekends ago, Limerick is in serious sh*t. Galway is obviously more of a tourist trap than Limerick is, and the centre of Galway was heaving. Not that I'm even much of a fan of Galway, but I happened to be in Limerick at 6 o clock on Sunday evening, and it was dead. Empty. Lots of scumbags and drugged up lads wandering around. There were a few tourists who looked very nervous!! It looked a sorry sight, sad to say.....

Most tourists come here for that very reason, sports tourism is a huge sector and this city quite rightly does really well out of it, (City was packed last weekend and this weekend as a result of it) much better than any other Irish city or town, and in my opinion I would prefer the sports tourist over the "get legless" tourist any day of the week..."frat boys" have nothing to do with it, it merely exposes your deeper train of thought.

If you feel there is a healthier culture elsewhere fair enough, but in those stakes again we have plenty to be proud of, ignore it if you choose...

As for nervous tourists...they had nothing to be nervous of, they never get touched whenever they do come here.

bigpink

I say its a mix but our foreign tourism shoulnt be promoted with just Munster rugby

The people coming for sport and prob UL Arena would be coming anway

Silentcorner

bigpink wrote: »

I say its a mix but our foreign tourism shoulnt be promoted with just Munster rugby

The people coming for sport and prob UL Arena would be coming anway

We also have museums, art galleries, concert venues, historical buildings, riverside walks, but all that gets lost with our perceived reputation...a reputation that is holding us back....a reputation that we can restore if we can just change the mindset of people...beginning with our own people.

And be under no illusion, any city would be eternally grateful to have Munster Rugby based in their city or town, as should we be.

seachto7

I'm not against Munster Rugby, but do you really think most people from the UK or America, our target markets for "the gathering", give a toss about Munster rugby? Some do come over for the matches. But not during the summer.....
It seems to be a Limerick thing. You hear it about guys who have died. "Massive rugby man" thrown out like some kind of boast. I'd be more concerned about whether the deceased was a decent guy or not.
I've been to and watch Munster games all the time. I can take it or leave it, but it's nothing but a good thing for the city. But the plonkers in city hall seem to only latch on to sport. Sport. Sport. Sport. Sport. Sporting city. If we didn't have Munster rugby, what would we do then?

I don't even think Limerick has that bad a reputation anymore. In my opinion anyways. I agree with the previous poster, the centre, currently, is like a glorified town.

Silentcorner

I take your point, however bear in mind people come to the city for sport and get to see city they may not have done otherwise.

Take the Special Olympics back in 2010, excellent event and gave the city real positive exposure, we probably landed that because of our sporting reputation, I am willing to bet a lot of those that came that week came back, in fact we have it again as far as I know.

We have an excellent sporting infrastructure certainly the most impressive outside Dublin, why not shout about it....how do you think other cities attract visitors.

My point being do not underestimate the size of the sporting tourist market, and its impact on the city and our reputation.

Its not about jocks or frat boys, it goes a lot deeper.

No harm to develop a reputation for other attractions also, but such was the damage to our cities reputation that it is being rebuild bit by bit, the sooner our citizens realise that the sooner it will happen.

bigpink

Do we really live up to the City of Sport Name or Sporting Capital?