A warning has been issued by the organisers of the All-Ireland Line Dancing Championships that the £500,000 business bonanza for Galway city could go to Belfast next year.
The event, which is held annually during the North of Ireland May bank holiday weekend, could be moving North because of lack of sponsorship in Galway.
"This festival is worth at least £500,000 to Galway, but apart from a few firms the sponsorship here has been so poor that Salthill could lose it to Belfast's Waterfront Hall next time," said one of the organisers, Mr Martin O'Connell.
It was a surreal scene in Salthill over the past four days as a sea of cowboy-clad figures, over 2,000 of them, flocked to Leisureland to strut their stuff.
Most of those beneath the sea of stetsons were from Northern Ireland. The line dancers could not get the Waterfront last Saturday because of the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council. However, the event could go to Belfast next year, "and this would be a great loss to the tourist trade in Galway," said Mr O'Connell.
The winners of the adult section were "The Westcoasters" from Mayo, who beat off stiff competition from Northern Ireland and Dublin line-dance troupes to take the top title in the early hours of yesterday morning.