Slane’s Madonna Bonanza
Concert promoter MCD, Lord Henry Mountcharles and local businesses in Slane are set for a financial windfall when Madonna performs at Slane Castle in the Meath village tonight.The Queen of Pop’s first Irish concert will net about 7 million in ticket sales.Concerts have proven a lucrative revenue stream for Mountcharles, the castle’s owner, with shareholders’ funds for Slane Castle Productions Limited amounting to almost 180,000 at the end of 2002.The funds of that company may cover some losses at Slane Castle Limited, which runs Mountcharles’s stately home. That company had a deficit on capital and reserves of 311,782 at the end of 2002. It had creditors of 375,081 that year.
Mountcharles has hosted international stars, including U2, The Stereophonics and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, at the 1,500 acre estate since he began hosting concerts in 1981. Proceeds from the concerts aided a ten-year restoration project after a fire caused extensive damage to the building in 1991.Madonna fans paid 88.50 for tonight’s show, but it faced controversy after residents complained about the decision to hold the concert on a Sunday. A spokeswoman for the Navan Chamber of Commerce said publicans and restaurateurs believed staging the concert on a Sunday would increase their takings.
She said fans who arrived on Saturday had more time to spend in local towns and villages before going to the concert. Source: www.sbpost.ie/Susan Mitchell