Summer in the city is set to be a smash hit for Sunderland
There’s a feeling of possibilities and opportunities around the city, not least with news, interviews and a buzz about the new ownership of Sunderland Football Club.
Of course, I’m not ignoring the bitter disappointment of relegation, but we’re a city of people with fire in our bellies and there are plenty of key stakeholders pushing forward positive changes overall for the city.
We’ve seen some great changes over the past few years and there’s more to come.
Take the Tall Ships Races for example – only weeks away now.
The enormity of such an event of scale and possibility coming to our city and the once-in-a lifetime opportunity for young people to get on board for an experience they’ll never forget is remarkable.
The Sunderland Sail Training Ambassador Programme, which has been so generously sponsored by organisations in and around the city, will provide young people from all walks of life with a genuinely life-changing experience.
While I’m obviously excited to see the ships, I’m personally more excited about the possibilities and experience the event is providing to those children and the entire city.
The Tall Ships, along with this year’s Sunderland International Air Show, have put our city on the global events calendar for 2018.
Both drive footfall, not just to the fabulous seafront, but also into the city centre.
At a recent Chamber Committee meeting, Sharon Appleby from the BID (Business Improvement District) made a great presentation to our members about the fantastic happenings all around the city. Some of these you will already know of and some of them are yet to come.
I’m personally particularly looking forward to this year’s Summer in the City programme.
We’ve got Sunniside Live coming back – bigger and better than ever – plus the Fanzone coming again to the city centre, which means a giant screen set up on the side of a double decker bus with an on-board bar, which will allow visitors to watch the summer’s biggest sporting events in the sunshine, fingers crossed.
There are plans to screen the World Cup, Wimbledon, Ascot and Formula One.
For businesses in the city, it’s a great opportunity to get out and enjoy summer lunch meetings.
There are great places gaining great reputations all around the city and it’s refreshing to see so many new places opening.
The Looking Glass in Sunnside is abuzz with families and professionals at lunchtime and there’s a solid number of popular bars and restaurants, from Thai, Italian to everything in between, as our restaurant weeks have highlighted.
There are 400 businesses in Sunniside and I, for one, am looking forward to more alfresco lunches and evenings if the weather continues to stay on our side.
It’s going to be a great summer for the city and extremely pretty too, especially as Sunniside is joining Northumbria in Bloom this year.
Let’s hope all this talk of good weather hasn’t jinxed the next month ahead and we can continue to enjoy our little ones splashing in the fountains in Keel Square, a sunny Sunniside and the Roker Riviera for a little longer!