While Dubliners in their thousands plan to flee the capital this bank holiday weekend, the city will be filled with the sound of rock music as one of two major musical festivals gets under way in venues along the Liffey.
The Heineken Green Energy Festival, which began last night, will see such veterans as Bryan Ferry, Joe Strummer and Tracy Chapman headline along with the indie bands, the Mercury-award winning Gomez, Idlewild and the favourites of the British music press, Irish band JJ72.
The other music - or dance - event of the weekend is the Homelands Festival at Mosney in Co Meath.
Some 30,000 people are expected at the seven-stage arena which includes such luminaries in the dance firmament as Leftfield, Paul Oakenfold and Primal Scream, along with Irish DJs such as Glen Brady. The two-day event starts today.
Iarnrod Eireann will run special services from Dublin to the event. There will be eight departures from Connolly Station between 11.30 a.m. and 4.10 p.m., with eight returns, leaving Mosney between 12.05 p.m. and 4.50 p.m. A shuttle service from Mosney to Connolly Station will begin at 1 a.m. tomorrow with the last service at 3.30 a.m. Passengers must purchase a return ticket, for £13, before boarding the train.
Elsewhere, some 175,000 people are expected to travel by train over the bank holiday. On Monday, a Sunday service will operate on DART and Drogheda suburban routes while suburban services to and from Kildare will be cancelled.
Up to 100,000 are expected on Bus Eireann services. Normal services with additional buses will run today. Some evening buses will be cancelled tomorrow, while on Monday services will operate as on Sundays and services will resume as normal on Tuesday.
Almost 200,000 passengers are expected through Aer Rianta's three airports at Dublin, Cork and Shannon, an 8 per cent increase on the same period last year. Ryanair says its numbers are up by 20 per cent on the May bank holiday last year. It will fly 140,000 passengers this weekend on all its routes.
Stena Line expects to carry 50,000 passengers and 10,000 cars on its three routes, Dublin-Holyhead, Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead and Rosslare-Fishguard, over the weekend.
