Will Culture Company deliver a great 2008?

Aug 14 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

David Bartlett asks how festival cancellation will affect next year

THE Mathew Street Festival was seen by many as a dress rehearsal for next year’s European Capital of Culture celebrations in Liverpool.

Its cancellation last month, three weeks before its staging, was seen as a major blow to the city’s image worldwide.

Much of the blame for the debacle has been levelled at the Culture Company, charged with delivering the year-long programme of events for 2008.

The city council is currently carrying out an inquiry into the matter, and may answer some of these questions.

A scaled-down version of the event will now go ahead, with all the outdoor stages scrapped, this August Bank Holiday.

But the people of the city have been left asking how such a catastrophic cancellation could come about at such short notice.

The Mathew Street Festival is normally a hugely successful element of the city’s annual calendar and should have been bigger and better than ever this year in the lead up to Liverpool’s 800th birthday on Tuesday, August 28.

Many are now wondering what are the chances the Culture Company can deliver next year, when the world will be watching.

Defenders of the Culture Company argue the setback is only a wobble and next year’s celebrations will plant Liverpool firmly on the map.

But doubters worry that, if the Culture Company is left to its own devices, there may be more embarrassing fiascos ahead.

So today the Daily Post asks: Will the Culture Company deliver a great 2008?

davidbartlett@dailypost.co.uk

YES - The Case For: Evidence suggests Liverpool is a city that delivers

by David Wade-Smith, Chairman, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

I BELIEVE unequivocally that Liverpool’s 2008 culture year will be a success.

The situation with the Mathew Street Festival has exposed a vulnerability but that does not necessarily have any bearing on next year.

Every city that takes on the responsibility of delivering a nationally recognisable event always seems to have a crisis of confidence in the months leading up to the deadline.

And with just over 20 weeks to go it’s our turn. Events over the past two weeks will act as a useful wake-up call for us all.

My support and passion for the city has resulted in me being closely involved with a number of organisations and initiatives aimed at creating opportunities and choices for businesses and the people of Merseyside.

In the late 1990s, I was one of the founding board members of Liverpool Vision. While mapping out the ambitions and visions for the next 15 years, it was felt what was required was an ambitious target to aim for about half-way through that timescale.

Capital of Culture 2008 was a call to action, a message to the outside world that Liverpool was ready to join that elite group of mature, professional, and confident cities. Strong on heritage and full of creative talent, and not afraid to remind everyone what we can do.

Ten years ago, Liverpool’s reputation for delivery was at a low ebb. Now the number of ambitious projects seems to know no bounds, and our reputation for delivery is growing every day.

It’s only natural to still have doubts, after all we had never delivered anything quite like this before. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest we are a city that delivers.

The huge 38-acre Liverpool One retail and leisure development in the city centre continues rapidly towards completion, the cruise liner terminal is almost there, and the Arena and Conference Centre looks almost compete. Not a day goes by without another ambitious plan being splashed across the headlines.

The Culture Company was established to co-ordinate and deliver a successful 2008.

As far as I can tell, the Culture Company and the city’s events team have successfully organised many major events since we won the accolade over four years ago. They took the Mathew Street festival stratospheric between 2003 and 2006, and the Clipper race has become a bi-annual event to be proud of.

I am confident the Culture Company will deliver, and Liverpool will deliver.

NO - The Case Against: Mismanagement of events fails to inspire confidence

by Labour Group Leader, Cllr Joe Anderson

THE city needs to make a success of 2008, not least to build jobs and growth in our tourism industry. However, the mismanagement of events so far hasn't inspired confidence.

The council has created the Culture Company to deliver 2008, but the council still retains the purse strings and is employer of the staff.

For a long time, Labour councillors in Liverpool kept quiet about their concerns for the sake of our city. However, recent events have shown that keeping quiet has only allowed problems to fester and cause the catastrophe of the Mathew Street debacle. The council needs to ensure the proper resources are in place to fund 2008.

It is a scandal that, with only four months to go, the Lib-Dems are still scrabbling round, cap in hand, for £20m to fund Capital of Culture. The Lib-Dems said in the bid document that they would build up a fund from 2003, however, they have failed to do so and the chickens are now coming home to roost.

Proper staffing is essential. Failure to have adequate events staff and safety officials is unforgivable when large public events like the Mathew Street festival are being planned. Next year, we have many more public events and we must act quickly to rebuild the events team.

Acting openly and honestly is essential to rebuilding confidence and a full independent enquiry is the only way to regain the trust of businesses (currently so low that private sector contributions are £4m short from budget). Public involvement of the community is essential.

For too many, 2008 seems remote and not for their community or street. Liverpool won Capital of Culture because of its people - they deserve to be involved, not left on the sidelines.

The cultural organisations of the city are doing a marvellous job and will deliver a great programme using their own resources. The Philharmonic is buzzing with life, the Tate's Klimt and Turner exhibitions will be world class draws and our theatres and museums are some of the finest in the land.

However, they need a council and Culture Company who work with them. Having spent some £90m, the council will be able to show a programme of additional events.

The real question is the lasting legacy, both cultural and economic. The council must deliver the 14,000 additional jobs they promised and a truly enhanced cultural agenda to attract visitors for decades to come.

I honestly believe it's not too late to turn the situation round provided the council starts truly to work in partnership to deliver 2008. The people of Liverpool deserve no less.