Success of Live at the Marquee gigs lends hope to conference centre plan

People thought he was mad when he announced plans in 2004 to stage a series of summer concerts, by some of the world’s biggest stars, in a large tent in Cork’s docklands.

But leading music promoter Peter Aiken, of Aiken Promotions, knew there was demand in the south for top quality music acts: The only problem was Cork didn’t have a big enough venue.

So Aiken arranged his own temporary venue, importing a huge marquee from Europe for the first Live at the Marquee series in summer ’04.