Rolling Stones performance venue in Dublin likely to change over local residents' protest

DUBLIN, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The venue of The Rolling Stones' upcoming concert in the Irish capital Dublin could face changes as local residents living nearby the place on Monday staged a protest, calling concerned authorities to cancel the planned performance due to possible disruption of their lives.

The Rolling Stones, a famous English rock band, has announced to hold a concert in Dublin's Croke Park Stadium, one of the largest stadiums in Europe, which can accommodate over 82,000 people, on May 17.

The planned concert is the fourth of its kind to be staged in the stadium this year. Prior to this, three concerts have already booked the stadium as their performance venue.

The scheduling of a fourth concert in 2018 is an intensification of the use of the stadium which is disrupting the quality of life of locals, said Pat Gates, an organizer of Monday's protest which was attended by some 100 people, mostly old people.

Protestors complained that no consultation has been made with them before the announcement of the fourth concert. They said that the plans have violated the rules that no more than three concerts should be held in the stadium a year. They feared that there will not be adequate traffic, parking, policing and security plans for the event.

The event will transform the stadium into a "nightclub for 80,000 people", said one protestor.

"80,000 people coming into the community is going to create disruption and it's not just a one-day event," Gates told local media.

"It starts ten days before, when they start erecting the stage, and then three or four days afterwards, when they are dismantling it," he said, adding that it "would be mad if the residents did not challenge the application because it would "open the floodgates".

Protestors called concerned authorities including Dublin City Council and the stadium not to grant a licence to the concert. Local media reported that all the concerned authorities have declined to comment on the calls made by the protestors.

In 2014, local residents living nearby Croke Park Stadium had successfully blocked a holding of a U.S. singer's concert in the stadium because of the performance disturbance of their normal lives. Enditem