The other 2012 race

Time is running out for London's plans to stage a major cultural festival for the Olympics - but we can learn from Germany's World Cup effort

Published in early editions of the Evening Standard 26 January 2006

Probably the last people we want to take lessons from are the Germans, least of all when it comes to football. Along with Argentina, Germany has been our nemesis – bringing cruel defeat, usually on penalties, time after time.

Still, we may have to park that prejudice for a few weeks this summer when our old rival hosts the World Cup. As 2012 approaches, one group of Londoners should be watching the tournament especially closely – to pick up some useful tips.

Of course, Sebastian Coe and his Olympic staff will want to see how well the Germans stage a massive sporting event. But they should pay close attention to another aspect of Germany ’06 – and for that they don’t have to wait till the summer.

For what both the World Cup and the Olympics have in common these days is an obligation to reach out to those with no interest in sport. Major international competitions like these must now come with a cultural festival attached.

That means Coe’s job is to ensure not only that the 110m hurdles and men’s solo canoeing go to plan in 2012, but that there’s also plenty of live music, theatre and dance. And it’s not just a fortnight of arts events that’s required. The rules say that the moment Beijing passes on the Olympic torch in 2008, the London cultural festivities must begin.

That’s just two years away — and yet preparations have barely started. The post of Culture, Ceremonies and Education Director is still vacant, though the London team are hoping to make an appointment “in the next four weeks or so.” Theatre director Jude Kelly headed up the culture wing of the London bid, but her time is now consumed with running the South Bank. Some of London’s biggest arts figures – the likes of Tony Hall of the Royal Opera House and Nick Hytner of the National Theatre – were on a bid committee, but that body has had only one, poorly-attended meeting since London won the games in July. It now needs to be re-constituted for a new and much harder task: not proposing a cultural festival, but staging one. The plan is to have the relevant structures in place by April. For now, there is a yawning gap.

And yawning could be the operative word. The slim section in the bid document that related to culture was either vague or uninspiring. It promised a “festival of world culture,” which one insider admits is “just a name at the moment, with no content”; a Shakespeare festival, which sounds all right; and an idea to send a boat round the world to be called The Friend Ship.

Now I don’t want to be cynical, but that last wheeze has got dud written all over it. For one thing, it’s a lame pun that works only in English. For another, it defeats one of the purposes of the “cultural games,” which is to engage and excite the people of the host country in the lead up to the big event. The Friend Ship will, obviously, spend most of its time at sea, far away from London. Think the idea through and it only gets worse. The ship is meant to travel the world, picking up cultural cargo to bring back to London. If that doesn’t confirm the very imperialist image of our city which 2012 is desperate to cast off, then perhaps the specific voyage planned for Beijing will. Organisers imagine sending an 18th century style tea-clipper to China – a sure way to awaken memories of a dark episode in British imperial history, a trade dispute over tea which eventually led to the opium wars.

In other words, there is a right way to do these things and a wrong way. Which brings us to Germany. I’ve spent this week travelling across the country, and I’ve been struck by the quality of cultural activity already underway to mark the World Cup. The London organisers should hop on a plane fast – and steal as many good ideas as they can get away with.

The centrepiece is, naturally, a football – a huge, stunning orb, done in steel and neon that resembles both a ball and a globe. It’s been touring Germany’s cities since 2003 – fully three years before the tournament – bringing out long queues of punters wherever it appears. Inside are a series of hi-tech delights, screens which let you referee a virtual reality match, assemble different classic national teams, even to play the physio, massaging an injured player. So far there have been 700,000 visitors.

Come the evening and all the electronic gear is removed, transforming the orb into a 120-seat auditorium. It’s been the venue for the Cologne Opera Ensemble doing a high-art performance of terrace chants, a poet reading sonnets on the beautiful game and a celebrated choreographer, dressed in football strip, demonstrating the physical similarities between soccer and ballet. From Stuttgart to Leipzig, it’s been a huge success.

Beyond the travelling ball, there are 48 separate projects, including an oratorio – part choral music, part football chant – as well as a festival of short films with a soccer theme, drawing in moviemakers from Sri Lanka to Argentina. Coming in June is a theatrical improv competition, pitting national teams against each other: think of ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ as an Olympic sport.

There are lessons here for London. First, the cultural stuff should be thematically connected with the main event: in Germany the artistic output has not been random, but linked to football. For 2012 that needn’t mean operas about javelin throwing, but rather a connection with the deeper theme of the games: the diversity that makes London truly the world in one city. Second, you need a creative genius at the helm. Germany has deployed the phenomenal Austrian artist Andre [note to subs: acute accent on the e – JF] Heller: London could do worse than to give him a call. And third, this is a sport where speed counts. London needs to get cracking right away.

Posted on January 26, 2006 03:24 PM

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