Slane concert memories: ‘Maybe it’s nostalgia, but this was simply a magical day’

For generations, concerts at Slane Castle‘s natural amphitheatre have marked the pinnacle of summer, where the biggest acts have played in the late Henry Mountcharles’s enormous backyard.

This weekend the venue will welcome country-music star Luke Combs for two shows.

Below, readers share their stories from 45 years of gigs at the Co Meath venue, from the early days of Queen , Bruce Springsteen , and David Bowie to Guns N’ Roses , R.E.M. , the U2 2001 double and more recently Harry Styles .

This was my first concert. I was 18 with absolutely no idea what to expect. A gang of us got the bus from Fermoy. Nothing could have prepared me for Slane itself, though.

The crowds, a heaving, restless sea of people. The noise, the smells, cans and grass and too many bodies packed together. But somehow it was glorious.