The organisers of the Live at the Marquee concerts in Cork yesterday reassured fans that concerts would go ahead after winds ripped a tent in half on Thursday, causing extensive delays to the performance of Madness.
Shortly after 6.30pm on Thursday "violent winds" damaged the entrance tent in the Cork docklands site. Further winds ripped the entrance tent/bar area in half, and the organisers were forced to dismantle it.
The main tent was not affected by the poor weather conditions.
A spokeswoman for the Live at the Marquee series, Laura Kennedy, said her biggest concern was the health and safety of the audience and the band.
"Obviously we couldn't let anyone on site until we knew everything was safe. We had hoped we would be able to open the gates at 8pm and at 8pm everything was practically dismantled.
"The Cork Fire Brigade sent the chief fire inspector down last night to do a site inspection on safety. Then we were waiting on the building inspector to do a full tour to give us the goahead.
"We are very sorry if anybody was terribly inconvenienced but security did keep people up to date on the fact that it was a safety issue.
"I would just like to reassure everyone that all of our events are going to be going ahead as scheduled."
"The gates to the concert were due to open at 8pm but the delays meant that Madness did not go on stage until 10.30pm.
Aiken Promotions liaised with the Garda in order to obtain permission to allow the concert to take place at a later time.
Madness were keen to go ahead with the concert and received a rapturous response when they made it to the stage. Madness achieved most of their success in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, the Live at the Marquee gigs continue this evening with a performance by Christy Moore, who is joined by Declan Sinnott.
Elton John will perform on Monday evening, with multiple Grammy award winner Lionel Richie set to take to the stage on Wednesday with the final concert of the series.
Live At The Marquee was originally conceived as an event to take place during Cork's tenure as European Capital of Culture in 2005.
The annual concerts generate up to €10 million into the local economy. More than 70,000 people attended 15 gigs over the last three weeks in the specially constructed marquee.