SUCCESS. Well, now we know. With the official figures released yesterday, against the goals set, Capital of Culture has been a great success.
For the past few months, we have been talking in abstracts. About the feel-good factor and greater sense of well-being, all of which have been, and still are, true, but yesterday came the hard statistics.
Like the 15m people who have attended a cultural event or attraction. Of these, 25% were new to the city. The third-favourite UK city, behind two other capitals, London and Edinburgh.
Other indicators of success are that 70% of people in Liverpool have visited a museum and gallery, with the Maritime Museum expecting its one millionth visitor next week.
The recent poll in the Liverpool Echo showed that 80% of those taking part felt positive about Capital of Culture; 74% got involved in an event, and 65% said the money it cost was well spent, which it was when you consider the £800m impact on the economy and the £200m in global media exposure. It is the latter that has brought those 3m visitors new to the city.
Yet, while we should take a moment or two to reflect, perhaps even bask, in the numbers that underpin the success we must not do so for too long.
We must neither rest on our laurels, nor lose sight of the old show business adage that you are only as good as your last show. We are at a fantastic moment in time, but that is only the end of the beginning. The really hard bit is what comes next.
2008 has outstripped all expectations and it seems rather strange now to think back 12 months, to the launch of the great Scouse Wedding, and realise what a different place Liverpool is now in, as indeed is the rest of the world. This suggests that next year, when people might be thinking of staying at home instead of flying abroad for their holidays, this region is ideally placed to capitalise on its third most favourite ranking.
January 10 will see an important bit of cultural symbolism, the Transition Event to mark the renewed waterfront. We are not having a final, closing or grand finale, as that would seem to suggest that the great adventure is over.
It isn’t, it is only just the beginning of the next stage, as we transfer from European Capital of Culture to European Cultural Capital.
Last week saw the announcement of the Cultural Collective, a body that will keep the major stakeholders together to ensure that we continue to work collaboratively. To keep what we have together. To keep the ambition. To make it bigger, better, bolder. To make sure the city region itself builds on this year’s resounding success.
