DUBLIN WILL tonight play host to Ireland's first concert in over 15 months.
Irish musician James Vincent McMorrow will tonight take to the stage in Dublin's Iveagh Gardens in the first step of Ireland's roadmap to fully reopening.
A number of 'pilot' live entertainment events are set for Ireland in the coming weeks to study whether indoor and outdoor events can take place safely, without a significant spread of Covid-19.
A concert-goer enjoys a non-socially distanced outdoor live music event at Sefton Park on May 2, 2021 in Liverpool, England during the UK's series of 'pilot' events testing the safety of mass gatheringsJames Vincent McMorrow's gig tonight represents the first of these pilot events, with the musician playing before 500 people in the outdoor venue, and McMorrow told RTÉ Entertainment he expects "there will be tears".
"I've been having these really vivid dreams where I’m walking out on stage again," the emotional singer told the outlet.
"I’ve never had these dreams before but I keep dreaming of myself walking out on stage for the first time in a year and a half in front of people so I think I’m ready for a lot of emotional release."
Both McMorrow, other musicians and the wider public hope that tonight's show an the other pilot events set to take place, will prove that live music is safe; as things stand, live music of any sort is banned in pubs, with musicians having been out of work for over 15 months.
James Vincent McMorrow performing live (Photo: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)"I hope that when we do this gig on Thursday, they’ll see the actual sheer power of what this can do and how it can bring people together," he said of tonight's show, which features an opening act by Sorcha Richardson.
It is the first gig McMorrow and his 40-strong tour crew will have performed since his final show in February 2020 in Los Angeles, one month before the pandemic closed bars and concert halls.
He added that while he does not expect tonight's gig to be the start of a "grand reopening", he hopes it will show the Government that "this industry can be counted on to keep things safe".
