I've spent many a night & days in Swansea mostly for the Cricket B&B in Oystermouth Road and at the Vetch more than a few times, I've even been on the North Bank. Was it the Top Rank Nightclub in the City Centre ? some wicked nights there close to 40 years ago, Swansea girls were more welcoming than you lot.
It's a silly award that amounts to little, no funding comes to victor and Londonderry's events ended up in debt. That being said it may have been because it was Londonderry as not many people would travel 9 or more hours by boat to Northern Ireland no matter the cultural event taking place. If Swansea Bay wins, good for us I guess but considering our campaign is focusing in a violent drunk lowlife (Dylan Thomas) and a severely run down museum (Glynn Vivian Art Gallery) I don't think we stand a chance. There is little being mentioned of our real contribution to culture, or the fact that some developments in the Swansea Bay region altered the culture of the entire Western World. As I noted in my previous signature on this board it in Swansea Bay that the Modern Blast Furnace Process was invented, it was considered a revolution in Blast Furnace design and turned the British Empire and America into the powers they became. No mention of that sort of thing though because our city is so hung up on a wife beating bum who today would have been beaten to a pulp by a beaten wife's extended family. Also they have made no attempt to approach Dr. Lynn Evans who was the lease designers for the Large Hadron Collider, part of the team that proposed it to the EU and then ran the place as the most senior scientist/chief director. True he comes from Aberdare, but he chose Swansea University as his place to research and teach. He is supposedly a legend in physics and is nicknamed Evans the Atom by other scientists around the world. This guy is still alive and kicking and has been completely ignored despite his part in the scientific culture. It all comes down to people not understanding what culture is, some think it is all about Theatres and Museums. Culture is based on so much more.
9 hours on a boat to get to Derry / Londonderry? Fug me VRD are you pushing the ferry? I think the city of culture seems to have been a success, not sure about the events losing money but that isnt going to be reported. Good luck in winning the bid.
Yup, boat trips are slow. It takes nearly 20 hours to get to Copenhagen from England's eastern coastline and that is with the tidal process pushing the boat. When going to Belfast from South Wales (Pembrokeshire is one of the major ports to Ireland) it is against the tidal forces. I saw the report about the losses only a few days ago where they also explained the government is handing out this award but will not give them anything after that to promote themselves as a city of culture.
Not going to argue with you (well I am....not much to do this sunny Friday morning!) but, I reckon, geographically speaking, a bay has an almost semi-circular shape in general and so the Swansea bay gets pretty well around to the river Ogmore. Indeed, in the good ole days of the Welsh Development Agency, the Swansea BAy Initiative got around to that sort of point.
