"A peaceable lot", "grand young lads" and "a nice wholesome crowd", were some of the terms used by residents of Ballsbridge and gardaí to describe the crowd attending the Metallica/Linkin Park concert in the RDS, Dublin, last night.
Merrion Road, outside the RDS arena, was thronged with the hardest looking metal heads, dressed in the obligatory black, with chains, biker boots and tattoos, waiting patiently for the traffic lights to change so they could cross the road.
On a warm, bright August evening there was the inevitable overspill from the pubs in Ballsbridge, but as publicans had provided plastic pint cups there was no broken glass on the ground.
There was little sign of underage drinkers. Metal legends Metallica do tend to attract the older, beardy type of rocker, but their nu-metal colleagues, Linkin Park, have a younger following.
The music drifting over the walls of the RDS was very, very loud, but in the main, the residents of Ballsbridge accepted the event stoically. "They seem like a nice young crowd and it's a way to remember our lost youth," said one woman out for an evening stroll. "The road is always clean again in the morning and these events are comparatively rare."
The gardaí weren't taking any chances, however, and had a 60-strong presence at the event with a further 40 to 50 members on ordinary patrol in the area.
Gardaí estimate there were about 37,000 at the concert and they reported "very little trouble".
"It's probably more than we'd have for a Chris de Burgh concert but it's pretty normal for an event this size held in the RDS," a spokesman said. It was a far cry from the MTV "dance party" on Dollymount strand earlier this month, when three gardaí were injured and several arrests were made after a riot broke out.
