Everything is ready for the biggest concert ever to be held in Italy, on Saturday 2 July at the Circus Maximus in Rome, as part of the Live8 series of concerts organised by Sir Bob Geldorf to raise awareness of poverty in Africa. The Rome concert has a list of performers which grows every day and includes Francesco De Gregori, Ligabue, Claudio Baglioni, Jovanotti, Venditti, Laura Pausini, Renato Zero, Elisa, and le Vibrazione, and presenters such as Fiorello, Paola Cortellesi, Michelle Hunziker and Raoul Bova. It seems that now everyone wants to take part.

The weather is very hot and organisers are preparing to distribute more than a million bottles of chilled water. There will be five first-aid posts, each with three ambulances and 160 stretcher carriers. More than 200 volunteers from the citys civil protection unit will also be on duty; if the weather is still very hot on Saturday the Fire Brigade will be on call to spray the crowds with water, as they did during the young people's festival in the Jubilee year.

The concert is expected to begin at about 14.00 on Satuday and will go on at least until midnight.

On Sunday morning, 200 employees of AMA , the agency responsible for sweeping the city streets and collecting the rubbish, will set to work to clean up after the party.