The mod rockers will wow 45,000 fans over two days on Friday August 17 and Saturday August 18 to bring the curtain down on their 45 years on the road.
Revellers from all over the world will flock to Stirling for Runrig’s ‘The Last Dance’ concerts in the shadow of Stirling Castle at City Park.
Organisers say nine per cent of tickets sold are from outwith the UK with people travelling from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Germany and Scandinavia for the event.
Stirling Council’s Planning and Regulation Panel approved a temporary public entertainment licence for Runrig’s farewell knees-up on Tuesday.
Chair of the Panel, Councillor Alasdair MacPherson said: “Stirling is proud to welcome Runrig fans to the city to enjoy the band’s farewell concerts.
“Runrig’s retirement has sparked interest from fans all over the world and this two-day concert is expecting to bring in an estimated £7.25 million to the local economy.
“The band’s popularity has been underlined by the fact that a second date had to be added after all 25,000 tickets for the Saturday were sold within just four minutes of going on sale.
“Stirling Council officers have been working closely with the concert organisers LCC to ensure that traffic disruption is kept to a minimum and that the clean-up of the site is carried out to the highest standard.
“Attracting a concert of this significance has only been made possible by Stirling Council investing in making City Park a high quality event site through our city region deal capital programme.
“Runrig have made an outstanding contribution to Scottish music over the past 45 years and it is a tribute to Stirling that the band were so keen to perform here for their final concerts.”
Runrig will celebrate their farewell with a spectacular eight-minute fireworks display on the Saturday evening.
A campsite for 4,000 campers will open at 10am on the Friday and close on the Sunday at noon.
Stirling’s licensed premises are being invited to apply for an extra hour of opening for both nights of the concert.
All concert traffic travelling to Stirling on the M8/M9 and A9/M9 will be directed to junction 10 (Craigforth).
Signage will be in place for 14 days before the concert to make motorists aware of the Runrig event.
Event director Les Kidger, of LCC Live Event Services believes the Runrig farewell concerts are a major boost for Stirling.
He said: “This is Runrig’s final. People are travelling from all over the world. I think there’s nine per cent of the tickets sold, have been sold outwith the UK.
“We’ve got people coming in from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, and Germany and Scandinavia where the band were really popular.
“So it’s a really big thing for Stirling to welcome these people from all over the world and show them all the benefits that Stirling and Stirlingshire has to offer.
“Ken Bruce was on Radio 2 this week talking about the show so I think the next eight weeks will do a lot to promote Stirling as a concert venue.
“TV companies are going to be there and there will certainly be a DVD that will show not just the concert but the areas around Stirling. I’m sure the castle will be shown prominently.”
Mr Kidger gave an assurance to local residents that the site will not be left in a mess.
He said: “We do this all over the country from the south right to the north. If we don’t leave a site clean, we don’t get invited back – and it is very important that we get invited back.
“The last people to leave the site will be our cleaning officers, who will make sure there is nothing left behind.”