Antigen testing for the coronavirus will likely be used on the 500 concert goers who attend the first live outdoor event to be held at the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin next week.
The June 10th concert at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens will be a standing-only event, with marked-out pods to ensure social distancing. Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow is booked to headline the performance.
The chief executive of the National Concert Hall, Robert Read, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme that he is honoured the organisation will be curating the “extraordinary concert”.
“It has been nearly 15 months since we have been able to bring audiences back to the National Concert Hall and to be able to have this opportunity to lead the reopening of the cultural sector in this way… is a real privilege,” he added.
The theatre has already been availing of antigen testing for use on musicians, artists and crew involved in no-audience that have been live-streamed in recent months, he said. It is yet to be decided whether the audience at the Iveagh Gardens will be retested five days after the event.
Mr Read said tickets will go on sale via the National Concert Hall’s website at 10 am on Thursday. The event may also be available to stream online, either live or after the event.
The concert is the first in a series of test live entertainment events organised by the Department of Arts, Tourism, Culture and Heritage that are due to take place over a three-week period from June 10th. An indoor opera will be held on June 23rd at University Limerick Concert Hall, with up to 519 audience members, while an outdoor music festival is due to be performed for up to 3,500 spectators at the Phoenix Park in Dublin on June 26th. Another indoor music performance will be held for 200 people at INEC Club in Killarney, Co Kerry, and at Róisín Dubh in Co Galway.
