Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Winterfest has me dizzy with Dundee’s wonders
EVERY time I drove past it, I thought how pretty it looked.
With the giant Ferris wheel as its centrepiece, Dundee’s Winterfest looked so at home in Slessor Gardens.
It was like a twinkling Christmas fair you might find in Germany. Not sprawling like the traditional fairgrounds that need large spaces, but a compact delight in our centre.
Days before M&N Events packed up, I took the boys and wasn’t disappointed.
That you could reach dizzying heights on the wheel, seeing for miles; that you could ice skate like something out of Central Park in New York
(if you used your imagination really well) in the centre of Dundee – well, it was something, wasn’t it?
That such use is being made of this space, from musicians holding concerts to pop-up events like this, makes my heart sing.
One couple I spoke to had come from Stirling with their four-year-old daughter. The mum said: “This is the best find. It’s so easy – the train’s an adventure for the wee one. You get off at Dundee and all this is a few minutes’ walk away.”
She admitted she was a bit nervous about mixing at indoor venues and being packed like sardines into a soft play centre or kid-friendly cafe – but here, it felt clean and safe in the fresh air. Her daughter’s face was blue with candy floss.
The only people I ever hear complain about visiting
Dundee are those who haven’t been here for a decade or more, or who pass through en route to somewhere else via the Kingsway.
It’s the way Dundee has evolved and huge amounts of traffic can bypass the city centre. This has its uses, not least to keep congestion down, but the downside is you don’t see much of our city.
Yet no one who drives along Riverside accompanied every inch of the way by the Silvery Tay, past the historic Discovery, wondrous V&A, pop-ups like Winterfest, the beautifully restored Malmaison can fail to be sold on our city.
Glasgow has George Square to host city centre events, while Edinburgh has the backdrop of its castle to Princes Square’s Christmas markets and fairs. But who has the longest river in Scotland as its setting? Give us heat and we’d be like San Francisco – with a better sense of humour and cheaper pints.
You know me – Dundee positive pants – as we all try to be, cheerleading the great changes we have seen.
But if you’re in any doubt, do it. Take the drive along our riverfront, look out to the Tay and Fife then look back in at what we have, a stone’s throw from our train station and minutes from our shops, restaurants and bars.
The question is no longer why people would want to come to Dundee; but why wouldn’t they?
Three cheers for the organisers and Dundee council for seeing to it that Winterfest came about. I have a feeling it would only get better if it was a regular guest. Hopefully it becomes a festive fixture.