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NewsLatestVisitors Comments Week Ending 3rd SeptemberFriday 03 September 2010 Week Ending 3rd September
WESTLIFE triumph at CastleFriday 03 September 2010 TALKS are already under way to find an artist to follow Westlife, two days after the Irish boy band played Cawdor Castle's first open air concert. Management from three well known artists attended Saturday night's concert and talks are now taking place between them and promoters CK Events, which has signed a five-year deal to hold gigs at the castle.
"We are talking to three artists - their management came up to see the venue and loved it," promoter Les Kidger explained.
Cawdor Castle welcomed just under 3500 fans on Friday for a night with X Factor stars including Jamie "Afro" Archer and chart-topper Olly Murs, who told the crowd he would strip naked if his single "Please Don't Let Me Go" goes to number one.
Saturday saw 12,000 fans - almost a sell-out - descend on Cawdor. The MacDonald Brothers warmed up the crowd with old favourites like "Caledonia" and "Loch Lomond" before Irish girl group Wonderland - featuring Westlife's Kian Egan's wife and former Hollyoaks actress Jodi Albert - took to the stage.
Westlife came on around 9pm to a wave of high-pitched screams and what proved to be an energetic set, featuring at least three costume changes.
The set included songs from the band's back catalogue - which, believe it or not, dates back 11 years - with favourites like "When You're Looking Like That", "If I Let You Go", "Uptown Girl" and "Mandy."
A series of fun covers followed including Black Eye Peas' "I've Got A Feeling", Beyonce's "Halo", and Kings of Leon chart topper "Sex on Fire", before the band returned to its big hits "Flying Without Wings" and "World of Our Own" and a fireworks display, which brought down the curtain on the Westlife tour and the band's most northerly concert.
Mr Kidger described it as a "fantastic" weekend, but admitted some lessons would have to be learnt for next year.
"I was very happy with the way things went," he said.
"Friday night was very good, there was a real party atmosphere, and Saturday was just amazing. It was the last night of the tour and Westlife were in top form. I spoke to the guys afterwards and they loved it."
The promoters, which also brought Rod Stewart to the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in Inverness earlier this year, will now hold a series of de-brief meetings to assess Cawdor's first concert, with parking and transport likely to be high on the agenda. "Obviously we need to look at some areas - drop off and pick up and parking," Mr Kidger said. "We will take the issues on board and take it from there." With no shuttle buses on, heavy traffic meant it took some people up to two hours to leave the venue, while others waited at the taxi rank for more than four hours.
Despite some skidding, no vehicles had to be towed from the car park on Saturday, although some got stuck in Friday's wet weather.
There were also some complaints about poor lighting in the car park and difficulties locating cars in the mass of vehicles.
"The car park cleared in under the estimated time on Saturday," Mr Kidger said.
"There was a large volume of cars. With everyone leaving at the same time, you are always going to have an initial delay."
At the taxi rank, blankets were handed out to fans by the ambulance service, while the police organised some mini-buses to get people home because of the delay.
There were no major incidents although three people were arrested on Saturday, one for minor assault and two for breach of the peace.
"Generally the crowd were very well behaved," a police spokesman said.
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