(03-31-2004) Large Irish Festival With U2 Scrapped? - Financial Times*

[HelloAngel]

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.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentS...StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1079420064893

 

[U2 addict]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

 

[Bono's Tart]

U2 where never confirmed to play or did I miss something?

 

[babyman]

more time to work on the album!

 

[riderka]

Oh man, WHY???

 

[RademR]

exactly...more time to work on the album. lets hit the studio boys!

 

[Popmartijn]

U2 where never confirmed to play or did I miss something?

No they weren't. Here's a bit from the @U2 website:
http://www.atu2.com

With the "Day of Welcomes" Dublin concert now scrapped (see item below), Paul McGuinness has voiced his frustration with how the event was being promoted. As you may recall, U2's name was mentioned several times as one of the "big name acts" rumored to perform at the event, which had been given the name "Beautiful Night." He told the Irish Times:

"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," [McGuinness] 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."

C ya!

Marty