Galway 2020 bid is ready to be lodged

After 200 public meetings across the city and county, workshops with 31 outreach groups and 28 ‘Speak Outs’ conducted as far afield as London, Milwaukee and Chicago, Galway’s bid to be the 2020 Capital of Culture will be lodged in seven days.

The Galway 2020 bid book – an 80-page document answering a specific set of questions – will be delivered by courier to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in Killarney next Friday, October 16.

The stakes are huge. If Galway secures the designation, it is projected to bring in an additional one million visitors and would be the single biggest tourist injection ever to the western region. The European title will be shared by an Irish location as well as one in Croatia in five years’ time.

After the bid book is assessed, an interview process will follow in November before a shortlist of contenders is drawn up. The other contenders are Dublin, Limerick and a ‘three sisters’ application by Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. The Galway bid book is based on the process that was undertaken to deliver it, according to project manager Patricia Philbin.

“The programme and projects in the bid book have come from the public consultations – engaging with the citizens of Galway and listening to what people’s visions for what Galway could and ideally should be in 2020.”

For details on the Galway 2020 bid book, see this week’s Galway City Tribune