Please God, not Belle and Sebastian.
The opening of the V&A in September is, we learned this week, to be marked by a two-day festival on the waterfront featuring live music, dance and design.
Geoff Ellis, the music supremo behind T in the Park, and it’s unofficial replacement TRNSMT in Glasgow, is helping to organise the free 3D festival so it’s likely some big names could be involved.
Given they’re Scottish, successful, have Dundee connections and the universe enjoys finding ways to annoy me, this makes me fear it could be the aforementioned purveyors of cloying indie whimsy.
Lots of people I know and whose taste is usually pretty sound rate them, to the extent I allowed myself to be dragged to one of their concerts in Perth a few years ago. Maybe the problem wasn’t them, it was me.
It was not.
I arrived midway through the first song and left halfway through the second. Too much twee in one room for me.
My visceral over-reaction to one band aside, the 3D festival should be another great event for Dundee and will bring even more attention to our city, regardless of who is on the bill.
But all that fanfare for opening weekend is, while necessary, only half the battle.
Getting people to Dundee and through the doors of the V&A in it’s first six months will not be a problem.
Making sure Dundee remains a must-visit destination after all the hoopla over 2018 is over is an even greater and more important task.
Getting visitors to places other than the V&A is also a must.
The VisitDundee initiative, which has been set up to encourage those lured to Dundee by the promise of the V&A extend their stays in the city and make sure they a bit of what else is on offer, is a step in the right direction but city leaders need to find ways to keep focus on the city in years to come.
The V&A is an asset any city would want and it’s taken years of hard work and vision to bring it to Dundee.
And it’s absolutely right to celebrate its opening.
It should be an amazing weekend, with the eyes of Scotland firmly on Dundee on September 15.
But once the party’s over the hard work really begins: making sure Dundee retains a place on people’s lists of places to visit.
