Concert hall plans 25th anniversary

The National Concert Hall had had its "most successful year ever" in 2005, chairman Dr Dermot Egan said yesterday.

The hall hosted its biggest number of events and made its highest annual profit of €231,297. Attendances were the highest of any year so far, resulting in record box office sales.

The hall, on Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, is currently marking its 25th anniversary and a special schedule of events is to be announced on May 4th.

The hall hosted 433 events, recorded attendances of 313,375 and had average attendance levels of 79 per cent in 2005. Box office sales were €5.4 million, an increase of 11 per cent on 2004.

"The financial data does not reflect the National Concert Hall's objectives of cultural inclusiveness," said Dr Egan.

"This can only come with the events and performances. In 2005, these ranged from classical, choral, operatic, and ballet, to traditional, popular, jazz, contemporary and world music."

However, Dr Egan said the current venue has limitations, and these create challenges "in terms of the numbers and types of events that can be accommodated, the number of patrons, access for people with disabilities, and the financial performances that can be achieved." He said he was very pleased by the decision, announced in September, that the Government intended to proceed with the venue's redevelopment.

"At last, the way is clear for all to work together to realise the vision of a world-class performance centre. This will not just have a tremendous benefit for the cultural life of the country, but also for its economy." Dr Egan said the redevelopment was likely to double the venue's contribution to the local economy to more than €50 million per annum.

"We hope that the redevelopment will now move along at a pace and we are delighted that the OPW [Office of Public Works] is of the view that it will be possible to develop a state-of-the-art National Concert Hall by reconfiguring the University College Dublin site at Earlsfort Terrace."