As I was walking through the city tonight I considered what it could be like if the Garden of Light was extended. Here are a few ideas of how the Garden of Light could be the centre of something bigger, or indeed just some kind of city centre festival that could take place:
1) Co-ordinate with an evening or two of late opening at the Media Museum, Impressions Gallery, Peace Museum and others.
2) Introduce 'pop up' exhibitions / cafés for the duration of the garden of light in empty shops.
3) Light up large empty buildings like High Point or the former Police station.
4) Seek to have a programme of live music in a range of venues, from established live music venues, and also unusual venues like historic buildings.
5) A city centre ale trail - visit participating venues (could be about six) for a pint in the two weeks and get a free glass.
6) Well publicised special offers at the city centre restaurants over the the duration of the event.
Just a few I thought of on my short walk... any more?
Just perfect ideas. My thoughts were that I. Expected it to be OK to pretty good - not amazingly mind blowing - and I was right.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is amazing is that we're doing stuff like this. It's like we're acting like a real city with a cultural heart and a reason to be - wonderful!
Definitely some joined up thinking would help - as you state - and getting proper info out there and building on events like GoL will work. I contacted Boar Fest about making it bigger and city wide, and the desire is there but we've not got the volume to make that possible... yet. However, I also think we have to jog before we sprint as any jitters may snowball and the usual negative types will jump on any failure to damn the city and the council, I would think, are scared of anything negative as the jackals and vultures will be waiting.
Any road, back to you. As per usual, top post. Great ideas. Make sure you tweet link to @shinchliffe on t'council. She listens and responds.