Big send off for Dundee's 2023 culture capital bid
Dundee's bid proposal to become European Capital of Culture 2023 has been officially submitted, a day ahead of the competition deadline.
The 80-page document, which has not been made public, is understood to include 110 new projects across the city. Dundee is competing against Leeds, Belfast, Nottingham and Milton Keynes. The European Capital of Culture competition is an annual designation awarded to two European cities. School pupils joined the bid team and local politicians at an event in Dundee City Square to mark the official submission of the bid. Both Hungary and the UK will host a Capital of Culture in 2023. The Dundee bid team will be interviewed by a panel of European judges in late November, with the shortlisted cities expected to be announced on 30 November - St Andrew's Day. Dundee City Council leader John Alexander said: "The effect on the city would be transformative, no doubt about it. "Glasgow's resurgence started in 1990 when they hosted the competition and they're still feeling the positive effects almost three decades on. "The bid outlines the most ambitious cultural programme ever planned for the city. "It would bring household names from around the world to perform here, but would also take place and involve people in every single community in Dundee." Scotland's Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, said she was impressed with the "scale and substance" of Dundee's bid. She said: "Dundee as European Capital of Culture would demonstrate how a city can reinvent itself through culture and creativity and would boost the city, the country and our international links." Dundee was recently ranked alongside Shanghai, Madagascar and the Faroe Islands as one of 10 "hot destinations" by The Wall Street Journal.