Elton John will play at a post-referendum concert at Stormont Castle in Belfast tonight. The event is part of an attempt by the British government to encourage a feel-good factor and cement the peace process.
Tens of thousands of people are expected, and 3,000 parking spaces are being set aside around the city to ease traffic congestion. Buses will ferry concert-goers from the car-parks.
There is speculation that other rock stars will join John in Stormont's first rock concert, but senior Northern Ireland Office sources discounted rumours that the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, might fly over.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, leaves for a four-day visit to the US today, accompanied by the party's publicity director, Ms Rita O'Hare. He will make a speech to the American Irish Historical Society, attend a Wall Street reception, meet several editorial boards and visit the White House.
The SDLP has selected Mr Denis Haughey and Mr Patsy McGlone as its Mid-Ulster candidates in the assembly elections. Mr McGlone is a former party press officer and Mr Haughey unsuccessfully contested last year's Westminster election in Mid Ulster.
Mr Haughey said the Belfast Agreement reflected his party's policies. "The SDLP has never sought victory for the nationalist community over the unionist community but rather a genuine working partnership based on equality and respect for everyone's identity," he said.
"Already the agreement has begun to transform attitudes to the community at large. Who could have ever anticipated, even a few short months ago, that the SDLP, parties representing the loyalist paramilitaries, Sinn Fein and the UUP would all be campaigning on the same side in a test of opinion, North and South, by means of the double referendum which the SDLP has been calling for many years."
The Alliance Party's general secretary, Mr David Ford, has been chosen as the party's candidate in South Antrim. He has been a member of the local council for five years and is a former social worker. He called on Ulster Unionist voters who supported the Belfast Agreement to give their second preferences to other pro-agreement candidates.