Octagon marquee village for rugby

A marquee village for Bledisloe Cup revellers will be erected when the lower Octagon is closed on Friday.

Octagon Village events co-ordinator Grant Ellis said the village of three 15m by 9m marquees would have a stage in the middle one.

The Lower Octagon and Lower Stuart St will be closed between 6am on Friday and 10am on Sunday.

After the final whistle of the Bledisloe Cup the village would be at capacity quickly, he said.

''The village is usually full by 11pm - about 3000 people.''

The village population would be similar to the Ireland versus Italy Rugby World Cup game.

And he expected more people to visit the village than when South Africa played the All Blacks last year.

''My guess is there will be about 3000 Australian supporters in the city.''

The village was being run by Craft Bar, the Terrace and Ratbags.

Council events special projects co-ordinator Kim Newman said everything planned for Saturday was on track.

A ''match day map'' had been distributed around Dunedin and bunting was being hung outside Dunedin shops.

At North Ground on Saturday, a Women's Provincial Championship rugby match between Otago and Manawatu would played at 11am and the Nude Blacks and Australian Invitation rugby teams would play at 3pm.

A pipe band would play at the Forsyth Barr Stadium Plaza between 6.30pm and 7.15pm.

The stadium would run shuttles from the Octagon on Saturday, she said.

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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