The UK government have announced that the crowd capacity at Wembley will be raised to more than 60,000 for the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020.

This will see the stadium filled to at least 75% capacity, the largest crowds assembled for a sporting event in the UK in more than 15 months.

Up to 22,500 fans (25% of its capacity) had been already permitted in Wembley for England's Group D games at Euro 2020 so far.

While the UK government has postponed lifting all restrictions until 19 July, the game at Wembley, along with certain other sporting events, is being allowed extra crowd capacity under its Events Research Programme.

Fans attending these games will need to follow a number of strict entry requirements, including having a negative Covid-19 test or proof of full vaccination, (i.e. two vaccine doses) 14 days before the fixture they are attending.

This announcement from across the Irish Sea comes on the same day that Ireland announced its first festival-style gig, which will take  place on July 3rd in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, hosted by the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

That gig will operate to a capacity of 3,500 people. Tickets will be sold in Pods of either 4 or 6 persons and lead person contact details must be provided and if required entire party for HSE contact tracing.

It will see the first official use of antigen testing on a crowd at a music or sporting event in Ireland – potentially pointing the way forward for events as the Irish Government tries to get the economy back up and fully functioning.

Gavin James has been confirmed to headline, and other performers confirmed include Sharon Shannon and current Hot Press cover star Denise Chaila.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday June 25th at 9am from Ticketmaster.ie.

Irish pilot sporting events are still restricted to numbers far below those in the UK, with the largest of these so far being the Camogie National League Finals, which took place on Saturday 20 June in Croke Park with a capacity of 3,000.