HOW TO BACK THE CITY

The team behind Sunderland’s bid to become UK City of Culture is calling for help from Echo readers. The city’s final, secondstage bid to win the prestigious title in 2021 will be sent to the Government today. And the team wants Wearsiders to show how much the city wants the title by showing their support on social media. Rebecca Ball, director of Sunderland 2021, said: “We have to convince the judges of the passionate belief here that Sunderland should win this – and one clear way of showing them the scale of support is through social media. “So we’re asking anyone and everyone with access to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to simultaneously show their support at noon today. “We’d like anyone who can to Tweet Ha’way #Sunderland2021 #UKCityofCulture2021 @DCMS and post a picture of Sunderland or themselves. “When we submitted our first round bid back in April we had an astonishing amount of support online. The hashtag #Sunderland2021 was trending 4th in the UK and had over 2.5 million impressions. It’s a big ask, but we’d like to do even better today. “We know some of the other cities have had the same idea, so we’d really like the scale of support for Sunderland 2021 to be reflected in our social media presence.” Sunderland is on a shortlist of five to win the coveted City of Culture 2021 title. Other cities shortlisted were Paisley, Swansea, Stoke and Coventry. The winner will be announced in Hull – holder of the title City of City of Culture. Judges will visit the city in early November to meet the bid team and its partners, and also to look at the venues which could host an exciting programme of events and activities.