"Swindon IS pants! It's soul-less - just one modern housing estate after another. Crap theatre and no culture to speak of."
I always think people who say there is no culture in Swindon have very little awareness of the town, and all the events that are on offer. No, it doesn't have the big theatre - but that's not the only way to have culture. Swindon does however have...
Annual literature festival, philosophical society, 4 drama clubs, Light operatic society, folk singing and folk dancing clubs, artists clubs, amnesty international, over 40 different bookclubs, gardening clubs, flower arranging, allotment organisations, several choral societies, bands, two film societies, Astronomy club, Anglo-French organisation, Interfaith dialogue group, Camcorder, Croquet, diving, fencing, lace making, various car clubs (caravanning, morris minors, old cars etc), photography clubs, rambling, Russian, Polish, Italian societies, Bee keeping, Figurative art, public speaking (several of these), brass bands, a plethora of dance clubs for adults.
But I guess as there's no big theatre, Swindon must be soulless and cultureless eh?
I've lived in a few places, and I would actually suggest the opposite is true. The mechanics institute in Swindon gave the town a culture of having these grass roots groups so far from having no culture at all - there's all sorts you can find there... you just need to consider the term 'culture' really means - "Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts" ... it's all there in Swindon, just not the big shiny theatre!