Leader Talk

City of Culture Update

27/11/2009

After many weeks and months of hard work, the reward for Durham staging the Lumiere Festival could be seen in the faces of many of the 75,000 who thronged the streets over the four day period in the middle of November.  Even the exceptionally bad weather on the first two nights did not dampen the spectacle and we are very thankful to all our partners, notably Artichoke, for putting on an event which will live long in the memory.

We have immediately started talks to repeat the festival and are hoping to again stage a similar event in 2011 and 2013.  It would be wonderful if the last of these coincided with the City of Culture programme.

In the next two weeks Durham will be finalising its bid and sending it off to London where it will be judged with up to 20 competitors.  Despite the intense competition the support we have had from the public, media and partners suggests we are in a very strong position to at least make the final shortlist.  We will find out the results of the next stage by late February and if we are shortlisted we will then have another three months to put together the final bid.

Many thanks to everybody who has contributed so far.