Capital of Culture 2008 - Cardiff's Bid

‘Take me somewhere good’ Ed Thomas, Song from a Forgotten City

Cardiff is one of the twelve cities competing to be European Capital of Culture 2008.

The Bid document has by now been submitted and a shortlist will be drawn up in the autumn. The winning city will be announced in the spring of 2003.

Cardiff has ample reason to believe in itself and its potential to be European Capital of Culture 2008:

• Cardiff represents more than a city and its outlying region in its bid. Cardiff’s bid speaks for the whole of Wales, a newly-devolved nation in an enlarged Europe.
• Because Cardiff is a new, young city, we are able to move forward unencumbered by patterns set in the past. We are receptive to the new and the innovative.
• The newness of our administrative systems contrasts with Wales’ rich ancient heritage and the industrial past on which Cardiff was built
• Europe’s youngest capital has a particularly buoyant youth culture, with Welsh groups and music and Cardiff’s club scene flourishing. There is a huge student population made up of young people from the four leading Higher Education establishments based in the city and competition for places at them all is extremely keen. Cardiff can also boast that an astonishingly high number of its graduates stay on here to live after graduating.
• As a result of this increasing population of young professional and artistic people, Cardiff has thriving industries in the multi-media, music and animation industries.

Official site for the Cardiff 2008 bid