Galway’s battle to win the bid for European Capital of Culture would result in around a million visitors to the county – and an economic bonanza.
And, despite fears to the contrary, the team behind the bid has vowed that rural towns and villages would also get their slice of the action.
A European jury will arrive in the city and county this July to rule on its bid – and if it’s successful, it will mean a bonanza for rural Galway towns, even those not renowned as tourist destinations.
The bid process was the subject of a presentation at this week’s meeting of Galway County Council, by representatives from the Galway 2020 initiative – and while the details of their bid was welcomed, there were some mixed reactions from councillors.
They all want to see the bid succeed, but they want the rural towns to benefit and that it is not just a ‘Galway city gig’.
But Jane Daly of the Galway 2020 initiative explained that if the city and county was successful, everyone would benefit.
She said that there would be events in towns across the county and asked those who live in these towns to become familiar with what the event could mean.
She said that it would not result in it being an artistic year but there would be diverse events like climate change, health and well-being, children and playgrounds and even events surrounding the Irish language.
Ms Daly said that it would of course involve the arts but also sport, culture and even fashion design.
She said that they want to impress the jury who will be arriving in Galway in July and believe they stand a reasonable chance of achieving their aims.
She added that they had four flagship projects and one of them included ‘small towns, big plans’ and she also believed that their current efforts were attracting interest from both Europe and the United States.
Earlier Patricia Philbin of Galway 2020 said that it would provide an unprecedented and unparalleled cultural experience that would connect the city with the county.
She referred to the year Liverpool was European Capital of Culture which resulted in a spend of £754 million stg in the region as the city benefited from significant infrastructural development. Since then there has been a growth of 37% in visitor numbers.
The outcome of Galway’s bid will be known by around the middle of July – but success, said Ms Philbin, would put Galway tourism on the map of the world.
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