The Saw Doctors' Stadium gig to cure Galway 2020?

Regular readers are well aware that Galway 2020 has been sailing through troubled waters for quite a while now.

Even its most fervent defenders acknowledge that the ship that is the European Capital of Culture project has sustained some heavy hits, and is rapidly taking on water.

It hasn’t sunk entirely – yet. But the embattled crew – those left behind who haven’t jumped ship – have an unenviable task of trying to steer the cultural cruise liner out of choppy waters.

Attempts to steady the ship are ongoing. They’re not quite there yet, though. Body blows such as the departure of the key personnel such as the company’s artistic director, Chris Baldwin; the high-profile pulling of Druid’s flagship production; and a funding crisis (what is the budget now?), have done lasting damage.

Galway 2020 overpromised and is now destined to underdeliver – by a long shot.

The final programme will be good – better than the usual arts and cultural offering we get in Galway each year – given some of the individuals involved in the organisation who are serious operators; but it won’t be a shadow of what Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, and others, promised in the bid book submitted to Europe.

That bid book won the designation for Galway and it cannot now be delivered on.

Galway 2020 is sick; and maybe, just maybe, The Saw Doctors are the cure.

The Tuam band are as culturally ‘Galway’ as you could get – the Shams bleed maroon, sure. They’ve more hits than Galway 2020 has funders. And signing Leo and the lads up for a big gig in Salthill’s Pearse Stadium (they’d sell-out the Galway Arts Festival Big Top venue many times over), would also make financial sense for cash-strapped Galway 2020.

For more Bradley Bytes read this week's Galway City Tribune