Music promoters MCD have been granted permission to stage the Madonna concert in Slane, Co Meath at the end of August.
Meath County Council gave the go-ahead to MCD today, to hold the concert on Sunday, August 29th, under a number of conditions.
Meath County Council confirms that a licence application, lodged MCD Productions Ltd. for a concert, headlined by Madonna, scheduled for Slane Castle on Sunday 29th August 2004 was approved today (Wednesday 23rd June 2004) subject to 17 conditions.
The conditions include a €1 levy payable to the council for each ticket sold to pay to "in respect of environmental improvements which may be required due to impact on the village of Slane"
The council has stipulated that the concert should not start before 2 p.m. and the stage show should finish up by 10.30 p.m.
The event management plan will include a major emergency plan, a traffic management plan, a safety strategy statement, and environment monitoring and clean-up programmes.
"The entire area affected by the event shall be fully cleaned, both during and after the event and all litter shall be removed by midday on Tuesday, August 31st 2004," the council said in a statement.
MCD must provide a minimum of 450 unisex chemical toilet units, a minimum of 114 chemical toilet units at car parks, bus drop off points and in Slane village.
The promoter, in a statement, thanked local residents for "participating in the review process which led to the granting of the licence".
There has been controversy over the hosting of the concert on a Sunday, attracting tens of thousands of music fans to the Co Meath village for the duration of the weekend.
Madonna-mania hit Ireland on Saturday as fans snapped up tickets. In the first five hours of sale €3.5 million worth of tickets were sold - half of the allocated 80,000.
The Slane concert is the only outdoor venue in Madonna's tour. The 45-year-old singer has been in the business for 25 years but has never performed in Ireland before. Madonna kicked-off her Reinvention Tour in the US in May and heads for Europe in July.
