capital of culture in slovakia

Of course, it's not my job to fight their corner, but I was happy to talk about Liverpool 2008 and my experiences of covering it as culture reporter.
I was one of a panel of four reporters - the others were from Linz in Austria, which of course is Capital of Culture this year, Pecs in Hungary which has the title in 2010, and Marseille which is Capital of Culture alongside Kosice (pronounced Koshitser) in four years' time.
Incidently, it was useful to compare notes with the journalists from Austria, Hungary and France and see the same issues surrounding Capital of Culture arise everywhere.
And the visit to Slovakia was certainly an interesting experience. Kosice is only about 35 miles from three borders - Ukraine, Hungary and Poland and is something of a melting pot of cultures which is unusual in Slovakia. I hope they use that to their advantage in their culture programme.
They are looking very strongly at using the title to develop capital projects - redeveloping derelict factories and army barracks for creative industries.
It's ambitious and interesting and I hope they achieve their aim. But I worry they may underestimate the public's appetite for a damn good party as well!
I took a CD of images from Liverpool's Capital of Culture year, and when I was putting it together it reminded me what a great year it was. There were the crowds in Lime Street, the Superlambananas, the walk through the Birkenhead tunnel, the spider, the Viennese balls, the firefighter games, the tall ships, McCartney's Anfield concert.....
Kosice doesn't have the same cultural heritage to draw on as Liverpool. But it does have a really pretty city centre, some interesting theatres and art galleries, and at the moment you can get there direct (on some days at least) with Sky Europe from Manchester.
Oh, and the beer is lovely and cheap!
I hope they make it a success. I hope they get lots of visitors. But only they can do that, and they need to have the backing of the media and of the people of the city.