Celtworld, the failed tourist attraction in Tramore, Co Waterford, is to be reborn as a major music venue backed by Vince Power, one of Britain's biggest concert and festival promoters.
Mr Power, from Waterford and head of the Mean Fiddler organisation, bought the 30,000 sq ft premises last week in partnership with three other businessmen. He plans to develop it as a concert and club complex.
Although based in London for 36 years, Mr Power, born in Kilmacthomas, continues to call Waterford home and is excited by the venue's potential.
"It's a huge facility and a great site, only 15 minutes from Waterford. We would hope to get all the big name bands in there but it won't be just one type of music. In the summer months we could do family-type shows," he says.
Mr Power has a house near Tramore and is nostalgic about the area, recalling nights as a teenager in the old Atlantic ballroom, now an amusement arcade near Celtworld.
"I used to go there in the 1950s when all the famous names played there. Basically we're just bringing that into the 21st century."
The aim is to have the venue open throughout the year and to tap into the tourist season particularly. The building will be versatile enough to accommodate low-key gigs and, on other occasions, major concerts, he believes.
The three others behind the venture are Tramore businessman Mr Paul Jackman, Mr Mick O'Keeffe, a partner of Mr Power's in the Mean Fiddler, and also from Waterford; and Mr John Reynolds of the POD nightclub in Dublin. Mr O'Keeffe has returned to live in Waterford and will run the new facility, bought for just under £500,000.
The site is close to an old railway station which Mr Power bought recently and which he plans to turn into a restaurant and bar. Both ventures, he hopes, will be open before next summer. He has never been slow to invest in his home county, with varying degrees of success. The man whose music empire is worth an estimated £40 million staged a concert in Tramore in 1993 - the Fleadh Mor - which was a financial disaster.
In an interview with The Irish Times last year, he joked that he would have been better off handing everybody in the town £100. Acts such as Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Van Morrison failed to pull in enough people and in a single day he lost £1 million.
He does not make many mistakes, however. Four years ago he helped rescue Tramore racecourse when he and another Waterford businessman, Mr Peter Queally, each put up £100,000 on condition there was local support. The racecourse has been rejuvenated.
Now in his early 50s, he emigrated at the age of 16 and ran a successful furniture business in London before setting up Mean Fiddler in 1982. The organisation owns almost 20 venues in London, the Mean Fiddler Dublin, and is behind such events as the Reading Festival, international fleadhs and the Homelands dance event in Mosney.
He has three young children with his partner, Alison Charles, and five others from two previous relationships. He also has a philanthropic streak, providing substantial support to the Bosnian children's charity, Cradle.
His plans for Celtworld will be subject to planning permission. The site is zoned for amenity use and local people objected to a plan by former owner Mr Phelim McCloskey of Mosney Holiday Centre to convert it into an apartment complex.
The £4 million "mythology centre" was opened in 1992 but flopped, closing three years later having received £1.8 million in EU grants. The main investor was Bord Failte.
