5,000 people gathered for a Tom Jones concert in Belfast yesterday evening.
A Belfast concert organiser has said that he is "bitterly disappointed" by the outcome of the decision not to hold Electric Picnic this year.
CHSq organiser Joe Dougan is responsible for a number of concerts being held in Northern Ireland, with the most recent seeing 5,000 people gather for a Tom Jones concert on Tuesday evening.
Everyone attending the concert had to either provide a negative antigen test, proof of full vaccination, or be recently recovered from Covid-19.
“The demand has been fantastic. Most of the concerts are sold out and the remainder are well on the way," he said.
“They are usually pretty popular anyway but there is a big demand for live music at the moment as you can imagine.”
Dougan said that there is a "lot of frustration" within the Irish music industry right now, adding that he was "bitterly disappointed" by the "unfair" Electric Picnic outcome.
“I feel that it is unfair. The All-Ireland semi-finals are happening with, I think it is 25,000 people per event, and it is not even-handed that no concerts really are able to go ahead at any sort of scale but you have that going on," he said.
“I think there is a lot of frustration in the Irish music industry and it is warranted as well. The people I know in the industry are pushing for a roadmap and hopefully, we’ll get one really soon.
“So yeah, bitterly disappointed with the outcome with Electric Picnic. I think a lot of people were looking forward to that and there didn’t seem to be a lot of dialogue before the decision."
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Electric Picnic festival had been scheduled to take place in late September but now won't be able to go ahead after months of speculation on whether it would be permitted to run as usual this year as Laois County Council refused to grant a license for the event.
