Live at the Marquee set to return

THE promoters of Cork’s Live at the Marquee hope to run the event again next year.

“Who would play depends on who will be available,” said Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions. “It’s too early yet to know who’ll be touring.”

This year’s event line-up included world-class performers like Bob Dylan, Kayne West and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. Almost all events sold out.

“Live at the Marquee isn’t about how many tickets we sell or how much money we make, it’s about the atmosphere,” said Aiken.

“One of the newspapers made a big deal about Robert Plant not selling out but we sold 3,100 tickets out of 5,000 and Robert Plant was delighted with the gig.

“We could have put Bob Dylan or Roger Waters in a much bigger venue and sold a lot more tickets but the Marquee’s 5,000-people capacity works very well for these performers.

Aiken denies that Live at the Marquee is aimed at an older audience, despite this year’s reliance on seasoned performers.

“It just depends on who’s available to play,” he says. “We’re not targeting any age group in particular.”

Aiken has already been asked to promote a similar event at another location next year.

“I’m not sure we’d do it,” he says. “Live at the Marquee is a special event, and I think everybody associates it with Cork by now, so maybe we should stick with that.”

Marc O’Sullivan