China seeks festival advice from Cork

An historic area in one of the world’s biggest cities has turned to Cork for advice on how to stage more festivals as it seeks to become one of Shanghai’s cultural hubs.

The mayor of Changning district, Xie Feng, who oversees a huge urban area of 800,000 people in the southern precinct of the sprawling 25 million population Chinese mega city, said he has been impressed by the range of Cork city’s festivals, including this weekend’s Jazz festival, since his city, China’s second city, twinned with Ireland’s second city a decade ago.

And as he prepares to visit Cork and Dublin next month, Mr Xie has asked his officials to link in with officials in Cork City Council for advice on how they can improve their festivals offering in Changning.