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April 01, 2004
Large Irish Festival With U2 Scrapped?
4.1.04 - Financial Times
U2, various other artists were set to headline "Ireland's Day of Welcomes"
Far from welcome
Ireland's Day of Welcomes - an EU extravaganza to celebrate the formal accession of 10 member states on May 1 - has been scaled back after receiving a far from rapturous welcome.
The centrepiece - a big open-air concert in the middle of Dublin - was scrapped yesterday. Joint promoters Irish broadcaster RTE and the BBC said it would cause too much disruption for local businesses, with the area closed to traffic for five days.
The stars already lined up included Van Morrison, U2, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries and Bob Geldof. Tickets will be refunded. There remains a suspicion, though, that the real reason for the cancellation is security.
The simultaneous concert in Belfast will still go ahead. While Belfast is (for now) part of the UK, not the Irish Republic, it is well used to dealing with terrorist threats.
Copyright © 2004 Financial Times. All rights reserved.
Posted by Jonathan at April 1, 2004 03:32 AM
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