'It's been great for the city': Live at the Marquee to stay at current location for now

IT is hoped that Live at the Marquee will remain at its current location for the foreseeable future, event promoter Peter Aiken has said.

Speaking in Cork, Mr Aiken said that until there is a clear plan regarding what the site on Monahan Rd will be used for, the tented series of concerts “could go on for another couple of years, hopefully”.

“It’s been great for the city, when you see the line-up of artists that have played it over the years. I think it’s been 1.2m people have gone [to gigs] there,” he said.

However, if the current site becomes unavailable, Mr Aiken said that he would have to consider before moving the series elsewhere in Cork.

“It’s been such a great history for Aiken Promotions as well that the feeling would be maybe that we’ve had a great run with it.

“It has done well every year, there’s no major upset, we’ve done some of the best artists in the world. 

"We’ve made some great friends doing it both on the stage and off the stage, and it’s just an end of an era maybe. And things do end.”

He said, as it stands, the series of gigs will provisionally go ahead next year, with people already booking dates.

Speaking about what makes the Marquee so unique as a venue, Mr Aiken described it as a venue where people feel they can relax.

“The sort of tent that we have, the sort of inside secret is, it accentuates the sound of the crowd, which helps a lot. When you are on stage, it’s deafening at times to hear what the crowd are like.”

Mr Aiken said it was Bob Dylan’s manager some years back who told him not to move from the venue “because it works”. He said he thought when Live at the Marquee began in 2005, he would “only do it for a year” and never imagined that years down the line, people would travel “from everywhere” to attend gigs at the Cork venue.

His comments came as Rod Stewart was announced as part of the lineup for this summer’s series of gigs, which Mr Aiken anticipates will be “two hours of hit after hit”.

“He’s an A-lister, an A-plus lister we call him, and he will draw from everywhere including the UK and Scotland. I’m sure anyone who was at the Marquee the last time would want to come back to it,” he said.

Rod Stewart will play on June 20, his first return to the Marquee in 14 years.

Lauded as the finest singer of his generation, Stewart has written several songs that turned into modern standards and earned countless awards.

Mr Aiken said Stewart, an avid football fan, requested that 100 footballs be given to him on the night to sign and throw into the audience, a move which Mr Aiken said “brings a bit of stardust” to the gig.