Large marquee to host music events during triAthlone festival

A large marquee is to be erected in the centre of Athlone next month in order to host music and live entertainment around triAthlone 2009. TriAthlone CEO Liam Heavin stated that a series of events are being currently being organised and will be staged at a marquee in the Civic Square from Thursday evening, July 16, through to Sunday, July 19. The marquee itself will have the capacity to accommodate 1,200 people at a live music event. It will be approximately seven metres high and will cover an area of 10,000 square feet. Mr Heavin stated that the events next month will give a flavour of what the public can expect when the European Triathlon championships come to town in the summer of 2010. 'During the local election campaign recently a lot of candidates talked about the need for an annual summer festival to bring business into the town,' said Mr Heavin. 'Since triAthlone began we have tried to host festivals in various guises and we"ve had good success with them, but this year we will be ramping up the size and scale of the events, so it"s very exciting stuff. 'With the European championships coming to Athlone next year we"re essentially hoping to lay the foundations for Athlone"s annual summer festival.' He stated that a prominent Irish band is expected to play at the triAthlone festival and that specific details of the line-up would be revealed shortly. This year"s triathlon race will be held on Saturday, July 18, and Mr Heavin stated that RTE had agreed to broadcast one hour"s coverage of the event. 'That"s double the amount of coverage we received last year, so it"s absolutely huge for us,' he said. He added that this is likely be increased to fours hours of live television coverage for the European championships in 2010. 'I don"t think we"ve ever had fours of live television coverage of an event in Athlone. As a native of the town, I certainly can"t remember that happening before,' he said. To date over 2,300 people have registered to take part in the triathlon. The "try a tri" and olympic distance races are completely full, while a small number of places remain in the sprint distance race. In addition, 150 elite athletes will be competing at the event, which includes the Irish sprint and elite championships, the military championships and qualification race for next year"s European championships. Athlone Town Council recently advertised a number of road closures for the event, and a traffic management plan is currently being finalised. Mr Heavin said that the triAthlone committee had been working much more closely with the Town Council, the Department of Defence and the Gardai in order to ensure that this year"s event goes smoothly. 'I think better communication was the main lesson that we took from the event last year and we"ve been holding a number of meetings with traders groups and the chamber of commerce in the lead up to this year"s race. Unfortunately there is an impact as a result of the road closures, and it is significant, but we"re trying as best we can to make it work this year.' He added that while the races this year and next year must take place on Saturdays, it is proposed to move the annual triathlon to the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend thereafter.