It's easy to criticise but here's why Glasgow 850 celebrations matter

A grand cavalcade of floats was held, processing from Kelvin Way to Glasgow Green where an ox was roasted. There was also a Highland Gathering at Scotstoun, a ball in the City Chambers, and a regatta on the Clyde. Elsewhere military bands played, concerts were held, exhibitions were mounted.

There was football too. On May 10 a crowd of 70,000 turned out in torrential rain to watch the Old Firm draw two each in the Glasgow Cup Final. A replay was mooted but never played. Three days later at the same venue, erstwhile rivals Sandy Jardine and Danny McGrain were members of a Scotland team facing Portugal in a friendly. Two notable facts about that game: Scotland won, and the half-time entertainment was The Wombles. They were booed off.

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• It's easy to criticise but here's why Glasgow 850 celebrations matter

Glasgow today is a very different place. It has seen change, regeneration and renewal. Like other post-industrial cities with a bit of nous and a lot of riparian real estate, it has developed its riverfront. It has redeveloped its galleries and theatres. It is a UNESCO City of Music (only the third in the world when that title was bestowed in 2008) and it has swapped heavy industry for something called ‘the night-time economy’.

As a result it attracts hip tourists on budgets and deep-pocketed professionals on eye-popping salaries (there’s currently a town-house for sale in Park Circus priced at £2.5 million). It also attracts events of the headline-grabbing variety. The COP26 summit in 2021. A Banksy exhibition last year. The 82nd World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, this summer.

But whether the city changes slowly or at speed, time still passes in the same fashion. So in 2025, Glasgow turns 850 and there’s another party planned. With 100 days to go until the end of 2024, some details of the programme and its tent-pole events have now been unveiled. Also its logo, rather boring next to the 1975 effort – Glasgow 850 in white on a circular red badge – but expect to see it everywhere nonetheless.

The programme is year-long rather than concentrated on one month, so there will be Glasgow 850-branded activities in events such as Celtic Connections. There’s also a Glasgow 850 Fund which has already awarded sums of up to £10,000 to 10 existing organisations, among them the city’s film and comedy festivals, the Mela and the TRNSMT rock festival.

In a serious upgrade of the 1975 ox roasting caper there’s also a Taste The Place strand. It will guide locals (and, importantly, visitors) through a selection of 40 city eateries, their dining experience enhanced by what’s described as a “self-guided digital trail”. And there’s a three-day music festival planned which will present a variety of concerts in venues along the waterfront.

The 850th celebrations will last for a year (Image: free) Glasgow hasn’t been alone in marking its birthdays over the years. In July 1951 there were lavish celebrations in Paris (and a cake) to mark its 2000th birthday. Rome, meanwhile, has its Natale di Roma, literally the birth of Rome, which takes April 21, 735 as the day and date of the city’s founding. And, though you might have missed it, the Edinburgh 900 event is ongoing this year and marks the 900th anniversary of the creation of a royal burgh by David I.

But with cuts of £4 million to care services in Glasgow announced in May, threats to teacher numbers unresolved and a £100 million budget shortfall looming between now and 2027, many city residents will question money being spent on marking what is, after all, just a number.

The counter argument is that there’s more going on here than just another routine expression of civic pride half a century after the last one and 50 years before the next. Beyond giving everyone a souvenir mug in 1975, there was no real thought given to legacy then because there was no great importance attached to it. That’s not true today.

Ditto visibility. Any spend on cultural activities like this has to be seen in the context of the intense competition between cities – competition whose measures are reputation and brand recognition, and where the prize is people.

First, the clever young people who are attracted to the city by its educational institutions and who stay on after they graduate to contribute to the economy.

Second, the older, established people running companies or looking to invest and establish businesses.

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Third, the creatives, opinion formers and grass-roots entrepreneurs who give a place its buzz, or relocate to it because they’ve heard good things. Besides its born-and-bred Glaswegians the city needs to cater to all of these groups.

But so do many other European cities. Every year the Economist Intelligence Unit produces an index of the world’s most liveable cities and every year it is dominated by places like Vienna, Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva.

But look at the biggest movers upwards in this year’s list and you’ll also find Sofia, Belgrade, Bucharest and Budapest. That’s the real competition. Infrastructure and attractions matter – everything from theatres and shops to cafes and bike lanes – but events like Glasgow 850 can help put the city in the shop window. Which is why in the press releases hitting the country’s news desks this week you find, alongside the community events and pop-up exhibitions about how life used to be, much mention of growth, of visitors, of ambition.

As much as they are marking a moment in Glasgow’s history, the organisers will hope money spent celebrating the past will prove an astute investment in the city’s future. If not, there won’t even be a commemorative mug to remember it by.