Belfast and furious

The wounds are still red raw – so we can’t get away with ignoring it – but, if 2002 is going to be remembered as the year Belfast fouled up its bid to be European City of Culture, I’m not convinced that in the future we’ll look back with much in the way of regret.

The Belfast that the bid spoke of – a timid, self-conscious, embarrassed place – had little in common with the Belfast (or more accurately – because it is a diverse and varied place – the Belfasts) that I know. Which was a massive disappointment for those of us who felt there was a genuine opportunity there for taking an honest look at what it means to live in this curious, fascinating town.

Early in the year when I interviewed Shona McCarthy, the then Chief Executive of Imagine Belfast, I was impressed by the way she dealt with the nascent (and in many cases trollishly kneejerk) criticisms that the bid’s early smoke signals had provoked. Yes, the bid stressed certain themes that reeked of lowest common denominator, corporate, felt-tip thinking, but I came away with the impression that, with some serious refinement there was a basis there for a fair bit of fun and provocative sparring.

Much of this optimism was based on having bumped into all sorts of interesting groups and individuals, who have been working hard, over the last three or four years, to make sense of contemporary Belfast; people like the Catalyst and Crescent Arts, those involved in The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfest and digital T, Source magazine, The Bloop City and the Howl crew would have, I believe, taken full advantage of any opportunity the bid afforded them.

Their experience of running leftfield events and interesting, under-exposed, hit-and-miss happenings – most times with little or no central funding – would have provided the heart and soul to a bid that, while blessed with a massive profile and budget, always ran the risk of descending into ad agency worthlessness.

If you need a paradigm of progress in action, you need only look at the improvement of the music scene here over the past few years. The last 12 months have seen Desert Hearts record one of the albums of the year, Phil Kieran release a single on Skint, Kidd Dynamo sign for an American label, The Olympic Lifts release their debut LP and the labels Bright Star, Schism, Slide and Shine all put out records to great acclaim. Add the continued development of The Amazing Pilots, fine tunes from acts as varied as Corrigan, Bellcrash, The Vendetta Suite and The Evangelists, and the fact that The Feline Dream can plot a course to a hero-worship homecoming at The Limelight from behind their PCs, and maybe things don’t look as culturally bleak as the IB board of directors would have us believe.

This has, in so many ways, been a desperate year (the closing of Good Vibrations proving to be one of the saddest events), but I always thought that the best thing about the Imagine Belfast bid was its title.

Maybe it can now be reclaimed. Who’s game?