QUICK TAKES - July 29, 2009
Dubliners angry over the around-the-clock dismantling of U2’s monumental concert stage mounted street protests Tuesday, threatening the Irish band’s plans for the next stop on their European tour.
Residents around Croke Park Stadium said their aim was to embarrass the Dublin City Council and the Gaelic Athletic Assn. -- which authorized two straight nights of noise -- not hang up Ireland’s most famous musical export.
Several dozen residents near the stadium called off their demonstrations after delaying U2’s initial convoy for several hours. More than 50 trucks eventually left with the band’s instruments, stage, lighting and sound equipment, and massive banks of television screens, behind schedule for concerts Friday and Saturday in the Swedish city of Goteborg.
U2 officials confirmed that the trucks missed their ferry and were playing catch-up, but expressed optimism that the band’s production would be fully assembled on time in Sweden.
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