I’m gonna say a few controversial things here, I’m sorry if I offend anyone. I will start by saying I absolutely love Sheffield and despite being from Chesterfield, I’ve supported United all my life and Sheffield will always be my home city despite living in loads of other big cities around the world.
However, there’s a deep rooted mindset within the Sheffield people that holds them and the city back a lot. Good things happen to other cities. Investment and high end products are for other people. You have to ask yourself why, despite all being cut from virtually the same cloth and sharing a lot of identity, the cities of Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester are so different. Manchester in particular I would describe as a metropolis and the people that live there are proud of their cutting edge, crest of a wave attitudes. There’s a saying there: ‘What happens in Manchester today, happens in London tomorrow.’ I just don’t feel like Sheffield shares this mentality. People sneer and turn their noses up at change. I think that’s fundamentally what sets Sheffield apart from Manchester. People are proud of it almost as they’re scared of losing their ‘identity’ whereas people in Manchester feel that being open and receptive to new ideas IS their identity.
There’s got to be a reason that Sheffield performs really poorly on the league table of Northern cities in terms of investment, tourism, employment etc. I think it’s linked to how generally tight people are.
I worked on a cocktail bar at Tramlines festival a few weeks ago, and it was by far the quietest bar on the whole site. People were literally walking up, seeing the prices and laughing in our faces. I know it’s not cheap but I’ve worked at festivals all over the country and never had a reaction like that.
Does anyone have any insight and want to discuss it without getting upset about it?