TOMORROW. The day we either look forward to or try to put off. But, following my now infamous “great Scouse wedding” line, tomorrow is the event to mark its anniversary, 365 days since we formally launched our time as European Capital of Culture.

Hopefully, people will have seen the banners, ads and publicity around the Transition Event, and there are signs that folk are also beginning to understand the thinking behind it. That, having put eight years of planning into 2008 becoming the springboard or foundation for the city’s renaissance, it seems illogical to indicate that the journey is over by staging a closing ceremony. That is what other, less successful, cities and Capitals of Culture have done when they have been bringing to an end nothing more than an enhanced arts festival.

But 2008 has always been much more than that, which is why Liverpool has been hailed as the most successful. True, the project may have looked like it was coming off the rails at times, just as it is a shame that the credit crunch arrived toward the latter half, but that should do nothing to dim the raised confidence, aspirations and expectations as people have witnessed that, either individually or collectively, they can use culture to deliver social, artistic and economic dividends.

This is why the Government has taken up the suggestion that one of the legacies of what is, after all, also the UK’s Capital of Culture, should be to build on the experience of 2008 and develop a UK Cities of Culture programme. This will also keep Liverpool at the heart of the UK’s cultural and tourism landscape, not just by association, as Glasgow has for the past 18 years, since its time in the sun in 1990, but also as the repository of knowledge and experience upon which other cities can draw. It can remain forever as a great European Cultural Capital. More of that later. In the meantime, regardless of not wanting to imply that the renaissance mechanism is coming to an end, we couldn’t let the anniversary of the Scouse Wedding go by without both celebrating an extraordinary year.

It is also an opportunity to, perhaps, kick-start 2009 – the Year of the Environment – by reminding ourselves that, even though 2008 has come and gone, the things that made it a success, from the Grand National to the Mathew Street festival, from the museums, galleries and theatres to the concert halls, street performances and sports venues, Merseyside has the biggest cultural offering of any other city outside London.

That is why it is not just one event at the Pier Head but why various arts, cultural venues and shops will be staying open late under the Light Nights banner.

So, come along if you can, but wrap up warm tomorrow.