A major traffic and security plan is underway this weekend for U2's concerts at Croke Park in Dublin.
Gardaí closed all roads around the stadium ahead of the concerts, with the traffic restrictions due to remain in place until 1am on the mornings following the concerts.
Up to 250,000 people are expected to converge on the venue over the three concert days, Friday, Saturday and Monday.
Concert goers are advised to check which part of the stadium their tickets are for and to follow the colour-coded signs to the area.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness said on Thursday that the band were apprehensive but very confident about playing in their home city.
"Playing Dublin is always extra excitement, extra pressure," he said. "It's great to be playing this magnificent stadium."
McGuinness also said that around half the songs U2 played during the concerts would be taken from their last two albums, while the rest would be classics, with the play-list changing every night.
Snow Patrol and The Radiators will play support to U2 on Friday night, The Thrills and Paddy Casey on Saturday, and Ash and The Bravery will take to the stage as warm-up acts on Monday.
Vertigo tour's production director, Jake Berry, said: "Everybody wanted to be here, at the right stadium in the right city at the right time."
The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the economic benefit to the capital of the three shows will be approximately €50m.
U2 in concert earlier this year in Anaheim
240,000  fans are preparing for Ireland's most successful band ever to return for a hometown gig in . The supergroup is playing Friday, Saturday and Monday in front of 80,000 people a night at .  have put in place a massive traffic management plan to cope with the influx of people. Fans have been queing since Thursday morning when a group of fans from , Italy and Canada started queuing outside the stadium.

The concert forms part of U2's current "" world tour. The support acts include emerging Irish bands  and  along with already very popular Paddy Casey.  and  will cap it off as warm up acts on Monday.

The gates for the gig will open at 4pm with the actual band not expected until around 8.30pm. Irish media has entered a frenzied anticipation of the concert all this week, with constant coverage on radio stations. The national broadcaster, , is set to dedicated almost 3hr 30min to the band with an exclusive interview by Dave Fanning forming the centerpiece of the stations coverage of the "U2 weekend".  frontman , who played in front of a sell out crowd in Dublin earlier this week told fans that U2 were "still the best band in the world".

Croke Park is the fourth largest stadium in Europe, with an official capacity of 82,000 - bigger than both   and  . Croke Park is used to host GAA matches in sports such as  and  and regularly attracts audiences of 60,000 or more in the summer months.