The invasion of Thurles got underway yesterday as the first of an expected 100,000 music fans arrived in the Tipperary town for the huge three-day Feile '91 outdoor rock festival.
They were warmly welcomed by 300 householders who opened up their private homes at £10 a night to provide bed and breakfast after all the local hotels and guesthouses were booked out.
Last night local business people calculated that Thurles could reap a £5m harvest from the star-studded festival which is costing promoter Denis Desmond over £1m to stage in the famous Semple Stadium.
Special trains and buses will bring fans from all over the country to Feile '91, while there will also be a big contingent of fans travelling from Britain to see what is now Europe's biggest music festival.
"Everything is in place and ready to roll and people have already begun to arrive in Thurles," festival publicist Oliver Walsh told the Irish Independent last night.
Altogether 37 acts — including such big names as Van Morrison, Nanci Griffith, Elvis Costello and the Pogues — will provide over 40 hours of music at Semple Stadium beginning at two o'clock this afternoon and ending after midnight on Sunday.
The Gardai have liaised with the promoter and with the Semple Stadium management committee and there will be a strong police force in the town over the weekend with special traffic measures also in operation.
The bands playing at Feile have also begun to arrive with English act, the Happy Mondays, who top the bill tonight, flying into Dublin Airport last night.
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