Organisers of Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture yesterday defended their decision to limit access to the main opening event to 26,000 people for safety reasons as it emerged that large numbers of people were unable to get tickets for the ceremony.
Awakening, which was devised by Waterford street theatre group Spraoi, will see a huge serpent brought to life over 600 metres of the River Lee between the Christy Ring and Brian Boru bridges from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. next Saturday.
The event, which draws on a mythological legend about the River Lee, is ticket-only. Tickets were distributed free through a network of more than 90 SuperValu and Centra stores throughout Cork on New Year's Day and yesterday.
However, a brief Irish Times survey of some of the distributing shops revealed that none had sufficient tickets to meet the demand, with some reporting up to five times the number of people looking for tickets as shops were allocated.
The manager of SuperValu in Togher, Mr Ken Morgan, said they had received 120 tickets which were allocated within 10 minutes; people were queuing outside for more than 40 minutes before the shop opened.
"They were just snapped up in no time at all," he said yesterday. "We still have people asking for them today. I reckon that we would have had four to five times the number of people asking for tickets as we were allocated."
At SuperValu in Hollyhill on Cork's north side, the manager, Mr Ben Colgan, could not say what the shop's allocation was but he said it wasn't enough.
"They were all gone within a few minutes, every second person seemed to be looking for them," he said.
SuperValu in Macroom received 50 tickets which were distributed in about an hour, while L & N SuperValu in Youghal received 30 tickets which went in 10 minutes.
Cork 2005's press and information officer, Ms Aoife Carlin, said the organisers had consulted the Garda and other authorities and they were obliged to restrict access to the six quays overlooking the event to 26,000 people.
"We had to comply with health and safety legislation so had to limit the attendance to 26,000 - that's the optimum number who can see this event which stretches over 600 metres of the river," she said. "There's no point in having people too far away from it."
Ms Carlin said the event would be shown by RTÉ on four giant screens around Cork city centre, including Patrick Street and Grand Parade and would also be broadcast live on RTÉ television.
"Awakening, while it is the centre-piece performance, is one of many events taking place in the city centre on Saturday. There will be 180 performers involved in various acts throughout the city centre, plus the fireworks display will be visible all over the city."
Meanwhile, a director of Cork 2005, Mr John Kennedy, has welcomed the decision by time-share exchange company RCI to provide volunteer interpreters for the year, saying it would allow Cork 2005 to tap into "an unrivalled linguistic resource".
RCI - which has a call centre in Cork - has offered volunteers from 31 countries with fluency in 18 languages.
