The Boss set to rock Marble City

Bruce Springsteen, with the full E Street Line Band line up, will bring his Wrecking Ball Weekender World Tour to a dramatic conclusion at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, next summer.

There will be two concerts in the Marble City, the first on Jul 27 and the second the following evening. Each concert will have a 20,000 capacity.

The announcement was made by Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions live on 2fm from the Set Theatre in Langton’s hotel in the city yesterday.

Also on the weekend line up are Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey playing Saturday night, and Imelda May with LAPD — featuring Liam O’Flynn, Andy Irvine, Paddy Glackin, and Donal Lunny — on Sunday.

The mayor of Kilkenny, Cllr Sean Ó hArgáin, described the announcement as a huge boost for the city.

“We’ve already had Bob Dylan and Paul Simon here and as a huge Springsteen fan for one weekend Brian Cody can stand aside and Bruce can be the Boss in town,” he said.

Almost 100,000 tickets have already been sold for three concerts by Springsteen at Thomond Park in Limerick on Jul 16, Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork on Jul 18 and Kings Hall in Belfast on Jul 20 as part of the European leg of his Wrecking Ball Tour. They are all sold out.

Tickets for the Kilkenny concerts go on sale next Thursday, and cost €90 general admission, and €100 seated.

Special buses and a Wrecking Ball Weekender train will be scheduled on both days to transport audiences from Dublin to Kilkenny.

Meanwhile, the sale of tickets for Sting’s Live at the Marquee in Cork gig this summer got off to a brisk start yesterday when they went on sale from 9am. Sting will play many of his greatest hits, stripped down, with a five-piece band.

The concert, part of Sting’s Back to Bass tour, takes place on Jul 1 and is also an Aiken promotion. A spokeswoman for Aiken Promotions said yesterday that tickets are still available both online and through nominated agents.

The ninth year of the Live at the Marquee series will also see Elvis Costello, ZZ Top and The Wanted appear at the Marquee for the first time while Elton John, The Coronas and Christy Moore make returns to the popular summer venue.