Killarney, Fitzgerald Stadium, June 25th 2004



I had always wanted to visit Ireland. When I heard that Bryan was going to play there I realized it was the perfect excuse to finally do it :).
Marzia and I flew to Dublin on Saturday, June 19th, and spent a whole week driving around and visiting the country.


Cliffs of Moher

It was way beyond what I expected - Ireland is amazing and I totally fell for it :). We saw great places and met lots of nice people... and sheeps, and cows ;)!


Sunset on the ocean in Lehinch

But that's another story so I'll fast forward to the day of the gig before everyone falls asleep :).

Killarney is a lovely town surrounded by forests and lakes. After 2 days spent touring the beautiful surroundings, the day of the gig arrived and we got to the venue in the late morning. To our surprise, no one was there!
No one except the security of course, who thought we were completely mad (who, us??) to think of lining up so early.
After a while we met up with Jill from the webboard and people slowly started to arrive. We met other baddies, including Niall and Denise again :). So nice to meet you all!

I must say that this was the most relaxed queing I had experienced for a long while... One of the main reasons is that security was so good it was unbelievable. I met some nice security guys in the past, but this was way better than anything else. Not only they gave us plenty of information on the venue, opening hours etc... they also let us in to have a look at the venue, take pics or get a coffee... they spent the day chatting with us... they even gave us ice creams!! And the best was yet to come...

When the opening time was getting near and a quite long queue had formed behind us, the security manager arrived - a very nice sir who seemed eager to help us as much as he could. Security started collecting our tickets, which was great enough as this speeds things a lot when entering!
And then... they suddenly opened the gate and let us in! We ran like mad things only to find a completely empty field in front of us. We reached the front barrier and hung on to it, waiting for those behind us to arrive...



But... no one arrived. We turned back, and realized we were the only people in!! The security had taken our hint, and let the first 10 or so people in before everyone else.
We couldn't believe our eyes. Time passed, and still no one arrived. We relaxed, chose the best spot possible, went to the bar to have a coffee... and still no one else arrived. Security was playing football on the field... someone was even cycling across it :)). We had the biggest smile on our faces :). It was only after a good half an hour that the others were let in.


Here we are, enjoying the amazing view of an empty stadium...


Marzia and I...and the flag, getting ready to rock. Thanks to one of the many sweet security guys for this pic :)!

The weather had been quite nice until then... but it suddenly got cold and windy, so that when the first support act started (Hazel-something, she wasn't bad at all) we were already freezing.



Simple Minds followed... They were pretty good, although I was so cold that I couldn't enjoy them that much. Still, they got a great welcome and really did well. We also had a good giggle the following day when we found them sitting next to us at the airport's bar...! :))

By then it had started to rain, and it went on and off for the whole night. But when Bryan arrived, we couldn't care less. I just took my hood off and got ready to rock! :)

BAd time!!! >>>

All pics (c)Roberta DS