High-Rise are backing Blackpool’s City of Culture bid – and here’s 10 reasons why we think you should too
Number 10 North might have come to Manchester but that’s nothing compared to MD Helen Furnivall’s excitement that her hometown of Blackpool is in the running to be the City of Culture 2029.
The four finalists are due to be announced this month. Also in the running are places including Milton Keynes, Swindon and Ipswich. But don’t worry about them.
Here’s Helen’s top 10 reasons why you should join her and back Blackpool’s bid on the Visit Britain website.
1. Blackpool has got three piers. Making it far better than most other UK seaside resorts – even Brighton which only has one and a half
2. Blackpool is home to the iconic Pleasure Beach with the world’s best psychedelic fairground ride Alice in Wonderland. So good High-Rise staff were forced to go on it on one of our team days.
3. Yes, South Shore may be run-down, but it’s also where photographs of Blackpool shopfronts by our friends the modernists were taken. You can buy the special edition Commonplace magazine here. Our MD even wrote the introduction!
4. Vintage fashion lovers should know there’s an iconic jeans shop on Bond Street in South Shore called Taylor’s which still has original stock from the 1960s and 1970s. It also has very irregular opening hours, so don’t blame us if it’s not open.
5. Notarianni’s ice-cream shop is brilliant. So brilliant it only needs to do one flavour of ice-cream (vanilla).
6. Forget Spike Island. The Stone Roses played one of their most iconic gigs in Blackpool at the Empress Ballroom in 1991. Watch it here if you don’t believe us.
7. Blackpool has an annual punk weekend. And Louder Than War’s John Robb (The Membranes) is backing his hometown’s bid and even features on the amazing official City of Culture bid poster.
8. Blackpool has its own museum called Showtown where there’s a Ken Dodd exhibition on at the moment.
9. There’s a Rest is History podcast dedicated to Britain’s most notorious curate who became a strange seaside attraction on Blackpool seafront before being mauled to death by a lion (beat that Milton Keynes!)
10. You may know that Blackpool has a Tower but do you know its circus is one of only four left in the world with a working water feature?
We’re not even mentioning the Pet Shop Boys! Or Robert Smith! Or The Comedy Carpet. Good luck Blackpool – but to be honest – it’s got to be in the bag!