Belfast is the smallest city ever to host the MTV EMA awards show – but boy did we do it in style! And of course The Dock was there – not letting a piffling little detail like the lack of a ticket stand in the way of a full Dock report… So let’s go live on location with some smug people with tickets and a lot of very loud Justin Bieber fans…

Today’s Dock Walk will have a slightly different perspective than usual… with the roads and car parks around the Odyssey all blocked off for the big MTV bash tonight, we’re going to meet instead at Belfast Castle at our usual time of 3:33 – allowing us to look out over the Titanic Quarter from above as we meet to chat, walk, pray and enjoy God’s fabulous world…

See you there!

UPDATE: …and it was fab!  A glorious Autumn afternoon, a brisk climb, good company and a stunning bird’s eye panorama from the Cave Hill over the city – with the evening sun gleaming off the panels of Titanic Belfast and the brickwork of the Pump House.  We read from the Psalms, listened to God Of This City, and prayed for this fantastic place we love.

The buzz around the city today is electric as the engines rev-up for a weekend of MTV madness. Belfast is the smallest city ever to host the MTV awards, but there’s a real sense that the city is pulling together to make the weekend something special.  The atmosphere is great – I even got a standing ovation from a crowd at the back gates of the Odyssey just for driving past in the campervan!

(for everyone who’s intending to lock themselves in a bunker for the weekend, terrified of chaos on the roads – everything was flowing perfectly normally today.  There’s information here about road closures over the weekend if anyone’s worried…)

I thought it was worth quoting the words of Andrew Irvine, Belfast City Centre Manager (full article here) – partly because he’s a thoroughly nice chap, partly because he’s RIGHT!

“There’s a palpable sense this will change a world view of Belfast.

This will communicate to 500 million people worldwide what Belfast is really like – that’s a game changer.

This is the starting pistol for 2012 and a massive year for the city with the Titanic centenary.

Seize the chance, now is our moment.”

It’s all go in the TQ this week… the Odyssey is gearing up for the MTV EMA awards on Sunday; the back car parks are filled with pop-up marquees, the Premier Inn is ring-fenced by a security barrier, the autograph-hunters and security guards are starting to appear already… it’s going to be HUUGGE!

It really is fantastic for Belfast that something as big as this is coming here.  This weekend, our wee city will be playing host to Queen, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.  Never mind that Selena (the host of the show) is too teenyboppy to be on my radar and I had to ask Susan who she was (Susan knew – she’s street) – these people are properly famous!  So I for one will happily endure a weekend of traffic jams, impassible city centres and screaming teenagers to hope and pray that the event is a massive success.  I’ll try not to mind that people had to audition to be in the audience.  (Can you scream?  You’re in.)  I’ll not be standing outside with my disapproving placards (“Down with this sort of thing!”  “Careful now”).  It’s good that it’s here.

And despite the manic-ness, we’ll still be gathering at the base of the Arc Apartments on Saturday morning from 11-1 for the next Meet The Neighbours event – it’s the first Saturday of the month, there’s coffee to be drunk, traybakes to be eaten and neighbours to be met!  Lady Gaga can throw herself at me all she wants; Selena Gomez can pout all she likes; Chris Martin can throw organic produce at me if it makes him feel better; they can’t come.  But you can.  See you there!

(oh, all right, they can come.  But only if they audition.)

Here in Dock-World we’re big fans of the photography of Heather Coulter – as Official Dock Photographer, she’s been there with her trusty camera at lots of the big events – and her pictures have got us into the pages of the Times, the Belfast Tele and (oh yes) the Church of Ireland Gazette!

There’s an exhibition of her work at Campbell College over the next few days – click on the thumbnail to the right to find out more…

And while we’re on the subject of photography, I feel inspired to offer a few of my humble efforts… a few spare minutes between Walking Tours yesterday, so I took the chance to take a photographic record of the TQ as it stands in October 2011… it’s changing so quickly these days that it’s worth having plenty of ‘Before’ pictures to contrast with the ‘After’!  Most of my shots were fairly boring point-and-shoot jobs, but I found a couple of wee interesting details that I thought looked a bit more arty:

It’s a photographer’s dream in the TQ at the moment, with the lovely mixture of old and new – if you’re in the slightest bit interested in photography, get snapping!