KYLIE fever is gripping the town ahead of her highly anticipated concert at Haydock Park Racecourse this Saturday.

Thousands are expected to attend the music spectacular which was sold out in March.

Haydock Park has staged a number of open air concerts over recent years from Tom Jones and Simply Red to the Scissor Sisters but Kylie's performance promises to be the biggest yet.

Jason Fildes the course's general manager said: "We are expecting up to 20,000 and is sold out which is very exciting. We have had Tom Jones which was big and Simply Red which was very big. But this is the biggest I have been involved with.

"We sold the tickets quicker than any other previous event. The stage is going to be a big deal and Kylie wants to put on a proper show."

Jason said that staging concerts such as this provides certain logistical challenges. "In terms of the infrastructure there will be a lot of pop up bars and we are hiring a lot of toilets. We have also had to build an area backstage. The stage is fabulous. It is very big and there will be a lot of dancers."

He said that hosting high quality musical acts will hopefully encourage other artists to come to Haydock Park in the future.

The Kylie show could have a "ripple effect" on the town says Gary Maddock from the council's events team. "Of those 20,000 coming in many will be from outside the area. People will come to the town centre before and after the event so the hotels are likely to be full. And all of this is down to the racing and the Kylie effect."

One savvy business is the West End Salon in Haydock which is capitalising on the concert by offering a number of themed Kylie pre-party packages.