Two Garth Brooks concerts cancelled. Only three of them to go ahead at Croke Park

UPDATE: All Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park have been cancelled

Only three of the five Garth Brooks concerts scheduled to take place at Croke Park this month will be permitted. Dublin City Council has granted permission for the shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Read the statement below!

All five Garth Brooks concerts are now sold out, but only three of them will take place at Croke Park. There is no official announcement for the other two concerts scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, July 28th and 29th respectively, but they might take place at the Aviva Stadium.

See also: Aiken Promotions Statement on Garth Brooks’ concerts at Croke Park

Dublin City Council’s decision on Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park

“Today 3rd July 2014 Dublin City Council (DCC) as the licensing authority granted permission for three of the five proposed Garth Brooks Concerts in Croke Park. In making its decision DCC acknowledged that both Croke Park Stadium and Aiken Promotions (Ireland) promote and operate well organised and safe events and that these events make a significant contribution to the economy of Dublin.

The City Council considered all the information submitted by the applicants together with the information outlined at a series of event related meetings convened as part of the statutory process associated with the consideration of this licence application. The submissions/observations from members of the public and businesses were also considered carefully as part of this decision process. A total of 373 submissions were received from members of the public on this licence application.

In assessing the application and having regard to the submissions/observations received, Dublin City Council considered that it would not be appropriate to grant five consecutive nights of concerts as applied for, for the reasons set out below.

Reasons:

1. The scale, magnitude and number of the concerts with an expected attendance of in excess of 80,000 people per night over five consecutive nights, three of them being week nights is unprecedented for Croke Park Stadium.

2. Three consecutive concerts have already taken place in Croke Park from the 23rd to 25th of May 2014. Given that Croke Park is situated in a heavily populated residential area, five shows in a row following on from the three concerts already held there this year is considered an over intensification of use of the stadium for the holding of special events/concerts. It would be in effect permitting an increase of 100% in terms of the maximum number of concerts that had previously been held in Croke Park in any given year since the redevelopment of the stadium.

3. The cumulative effect on residents and on some businesses in the Croke Park and surrounding neighbourhoods, of licencing five shows in a row, three of them on weekdays, would lead to an unacceptable level of disruption to their lives/livelihoods over an unprecedented and prolonged period caused by, concert related noise, access restrictions, traffic disruption, illegal parking and potential antisocial behaviour. The City Council would also be concerned with the precedent that would be created if five consecutive concerts in a row of this scale were licenced.

Having regard to the submissions/observations received and given the number of mitigation measures proposed by the applicant it is considered reasonable and appropriate that three of the events should take place and these have been licensed for the nights of Friday 25th July 2014, Saturday 26th July 2014 and Sunday the 27th of July 2014 subject to conditions. As in all cases licence applications for outdoor events under the Planning and Development Act 2000(as amended) are considered on their individual merits.”