The Day of Welcomes concert was to be a joint celebration in Dublin and Belfast - but now, it transpires, staging the Dublin gig was just too much trouble. Shane Hegarty finds out why
It won't be a beautiful night after all. One concert in two cities, Dublin and Belfast, that would be broadcast across Europe as the rousing conclusion to the May 1st Day of Welcomes. Acts were booked, tickets were reserved. But with only a month to go, RTÉ and the BBC - organisers of the event - pulled the plug, having belatedly realised what many Dubliners might presume was obvious: that it would cause citywide disruption for days in advance.
There were plenty of rumours of big name bands, but one act definitely not appearing was U2, despite the apparent hint in the name "Beautiful Night" and rumours of their appearance not being dampened by organisers. The band's manager Paul McGuinness confirms that he is extremely annoyed by how it was continually intimated that they would feature.
"It has been increasingly infuriating over the last few months as they gave press briefings which time and again gave the impression that U2 would be involved in this concert," he says. "They did ask us to play and we said no, but we wished them the best. It's been very annoying because we have had regular contacts with the organisers and it was clear that we weren't going to be involved. As it went on we kept quiet because we didn't want to make a song and dance about it. This was to be a national, public event that was part of a day of celebration and we didn't want to embarrass them." He is frank in his view of why it failed, blaming it on extremely poor organisation.
Confirmed acts had included Bob Geldof, Kíla and Katie Melua. Alanis Morrissette, a less obvious choice given that she is Canadian, was also to feature, although her booking agents had no comment to make on the cancellation.
RTÉ insists that there will still be a concert of some kind, although nothing has been arranged as yet.
Given that they need to apply for a licence 16 weeks in advance, it will not be an open-air, public concert on the scale of that planned for O'Connell Street. About 15,000 people were expected to attend, with the stage on the north side of the Spire and the audience to the south. RTÉ says it had looked at several venues, but felt it would help mark the relaunch of the country's main street. According to a spokesperson for the Department of Arts, however, RTÉ had told them that the BBC was insistent that O'Connell Street was the only venue it was interested in.
It was at a meeting with the Department of Arts and gardaí on Monday that RTÉ, which was prime organiser of the concert with the support of the Government, admitted its concerns. It had concluded that movement on O'Connell Street would have to be restricted for nine days in advance, with the street closed for five of those, in order to put up a stage and have suitable rehearsal time. Dublin City Council, however, would accept only two days of disruption. Feeling that the gap would not be bridged, RTÉ and the BBC decided they had no alternative but to cancel the show.
Although optimistic that O'Connell Street would be clear of roadworks, the reality of a city centre event was fully brought home to them during the traffic mayhem that followed the closure of Customs House Quay for a funfair during the St Patrick's Festival.
The BBC, it seems, had also recently asked that it be indemnified in case of any damage to property in Dublin during the event.
The department spokesperson says security fears did not come into it. Anti-globalisation protesters are planning to descend on Dublin that weekend, with activist groups such as Dublin Grassroots Network inviting people to the city for the day through websites that give details on how to travel, where to stay and where to protest. With British anarchist groups answering that call, and May Day protests notorious for culminating in riots, the Garda is preparing for a busy weekend. However, in that Monday meeting, the Garda made clear that while it might have been an extra burden on resources, it was still prepared to police the concert.
During the licensing application, the Dublin City Business Association had welcomed the event, although its was stipulating that shops remained open to customers and staff during the build-up and that public transport remained unaffected. Its chief executive, Tom Coffey, believes the failure of this venture is part of a wider misunderstanding about what it takes to put on these kinds of events on in a major city.
"In major cities like New York or Amsterdam they have plazas or large spaces in which to do these things and public transport to ferry people in and accommodation for them to stay in. But they were trying to imitate that in a smaller space without the infrastructure."
He would like to see a set of ground rules laid down to plan future shows and feels that Beautiful Night might have worked better if based in Smithfield rather than the cluttered main thoroughfare of the capital.
Ultimately, it begs the question why it took organisers so long to realise that running a concert on O'Connell Street would be so difficult. It looks particularly bad given that the BBC's Belfast concert will go ahead as part of its Music Live series of events; taking place on a floating stage outside Waterfront Hall.
"It was only last week that the degree of difficulty really came to light," an RTÉ spokesperson admits. "The scale of the disruption to both trade and traffic was not fully appreciated. Against all hope we were really fighting for it to happen, but . . . aspiration and practicality clashed."