Like every other facet of life, Limerick's musical spectrum has changed dramatically over the past decade.

Numerous bands have come and gone, club-nights have swapped DJs, promoters and homes, and various labels and collectives have sprung up, some of them still surviving, others confined to the nostalgia bank.

One constant over the last decade has not been an artist or a club-night but a venue: since opening its doors on April 29, 1998, Dolan's Warehouse has become something of a Mecca for Limerick gig-goers, attracting acts as varied and prestigious as Rocket From The Crypt, The Sugarhill Gang, CSS, Super Furry Animals, The Posies, Ash, Ian Brown, and Christy Moore, as well as regular jazz, trad and comedy outings.

Now, it is time to 'blow out the candles' for the Dock Road venue as they temporarily move up the road next weekend to a festival site for their tenth birthday celebrations, where they will be joined for three nights by the likes of headliners Sharon Shannon, The Saw Doctors and The Zutons, along with many more.

While he may be originally a Dubliner, Mick Dolan is every bit an honorary Limerick-man at this stage, and the intention behind moving his family to Limerick in 1994 was to have a music venue and restaurant.

As he admits, it later became necessary to expand even further. "Once the Warehouse opened and was operational we realised there was also a niche in the market for a smaller more intimate type of venue for both up and coming acts as well as acoustic shows by better known acts, so The Upstairs was born in February 2004."

Trying to get Mick to choose favourite shows over the years unsurprisingly is a difficult task: "If we were pushed we would have to mention David Gray's gigs in October 1999; it was then we really thought it's gonna work! Gomez singing 'Whippin' Piccadilly' to a packed out Warehouse, Spiritualized walking on stage with the best light show we had seen in the venue, Glen Hansard singing "New Partner" with Bonnie Prince Billy, Josh Ritter's pure brilliance singing his whole encore acoustically to a sold out venue, Kasabian doing 'Shoot The Runner', and Tommy Tiernan playing seven sell out shows in a week!"

With the anniversary looming, plans for the D Festival stretched back to late last year. "It is something we have thought about for quite a while and we figured the tenth Anniversary was the incentive we needed to push the boat out and deliver a music festival to remember for Limerick," says Dolan.

Pushing the boat out also requires the erection of a marquee tent along the docks, ensuring that festival-goers won't have to worry too much about the elements.