Westlife and X-Factor contestant Mary Byrne are among the acts to perform for Queen Elizabeth during an evening celebrating fashion, music and theatre in Dublin next month.
Queen Elizabeth will be joined by President Mary McAleese and some 2,000 guests in an unnamed venue “iconic modern venue” in Dublin’s docklands on the last evening of her State visit.
The event is being hosted by the British ambassador to Ireland on behalf of the Queen as a “return event” which the visiting country hosts during State visits.
The show will be produced by entrepreneur Harry Crosbie with Riverdance founder John McColgan as artistic director and assisted by film maker Gerald Heffernan and magazine publisher Norah Casey.
“I’m honoured to be asked to do it” said Mr Crosbie. “We want to do the best possible show on behalf of the Irish people,” he said. “It will be a huge exciting show”, there will be “a couple of surprises” and people “will be amazed,” he said.
“We wanted to mark this historic occasion and to reflect the huge support and interest there has been in this visit,” British Ambassador to Ireland Julian King said in a statement.
It promises to be a “memorable occasion” and an opportunity to celebrate the queen’s visit as “also the love of music, the spoken word, fashion, and design that people from across our two countries share,”.
The event will showcase the “best of British and Irish fashion” and “brings together on one stage some of the finest performers working in Ireland today”, Mr King said.
The queen and Duke of Edinburgh will visit Ireland from May 17th to 20th 2011.
