Garth Brooks concerts cancelled - **READ FIRST POST FOR MOD NOTES**

CrazyRabbit

So let's see.

Residents
We have a bunch of residents complaining about disruption. I lived beside Croker for 6 years. The disruption isn't that bad, the noise is harmless and the crowds aren't any worse than those coming out of the pubs on Friday nights. And to top it all off, they all moved into their houses knowing there was a huge stadium beside them. Most of the residents really aren't bothered by the concerts (speaking from experience).

The Promoters
They told Brooks that 5 shows wouldn't be a problem. It's an assumption that turned out to be wrong. As far as I am concerned, it was this assumption/lie that started everything.

DCC
The fact that the promoters believed that 5 shows would be ok even though there was an agreement in place for a max of 3, implies that DCC are considered a pushover. And to be fair, they probably would have allowed the 5 if there had not been such an uproar from the residents.

Brooks
He's fond of Ireland and choose to start his comeback tour here as a thank you for the welcome/response he got the last time he was here. He planned 2 shows, but when demand was higher than expected, he asked if he could do 5. He was told 'yes'. He then upgraded the production quality based on this as it was now economically feasible to do so. Also, they put a lot of planning into a DVD-Documentary that would be partially shot at the 5 shows.
Later on he is told that 2 of the shows have to be dropped and that he would have to choose which of the 400,000 fans to disappoint. Say what you will, he's dedicated to his fans. He couldn't choose & it's unfair to ask him to do so. Later again, he's giving the option of 2 daytime shows. But these would be inferior as the production/lighting effects etc don't work as well in the bright daylight. Again, it's unfair to ask him to choose which fans to disappoint with inferior production.
The '5 or none' ultimatum was to try to force all involved to allow his 400,000 fans to get what they had paid for and had been promised. It didn't work.
Brooks may have an ego, and his music isn't really my taste, but I can't fault the guy for trying to get what he was promised for his fans.

A small but vocal group of residents, an incompetent promoter and a spineless council have now damaged our reputation & economy. We can't even host a few concerts without ****ing it up. It will be a long time before any other band/artists will risk using Croker....and possibly stay clear of Ireland altogether as it is too much hassle/risk.

I hope the promoters are sued by those who bought tickets & are heavily fined for this. I also hope we get clear legislation covering large events like this.

CapricornOne

Apparently there's a protest planned for tomorrow... SMH

Daith

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Later on he is told that 2 of the shows have to be dropped and that he would have to choose which of the 400,000 fans to disappoint. Say what you will, he's dedicated to his fans. He couldn't choose & it's unfair to ask him to do so. Later again, he's giving the option of 2 daytime shows. But these would be inferior as the production/lighting effects etc don't work as well in the bright daylight. Again, it's unfair to ask him to choose which fans to disappoint with inferior production.

Bloody hell. Has Brooks got a pact with God or something so that it doesn't rain also because that would affect the show too.

Joe prim

I am a representative of the resident's group that only want two concerts, but to be held on a Friday in August and a Tuesday in October , we have the support of up to a huge number of people, are we too late to get a place at the table? Is there still a table? Even a coffee table beside the big table would do?

nxbyveromdwjpg

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

I hope the promoters are sued by those who bought tickets & are heavily fined for this. I also hope we get clear legislation covering large events like this.

Agree with most of that but as for the above, they won't and can't be as just like all others events in this country the tickets were sold subject to licence, it's printed on the ticket, it's everywhere.

It needs to change yes but it's not a scam by the promoters, it's how events work(ed) here.

Muahahaha

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

I wish Christy Burke would shut the fcuk up.

Everytime that fool opens his mouth he makes matters worse. The sooner we have a directly elected Mayor the better because as bad as the electorate are they surely would never have elected a fool like him as Mayor.

dandyo wrote: »

Do you reckon Garth likes UHT Milk? Is there any demand for that?

There's no demand for that because it's sh1te.

Happyman42

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Brooks
He's fond of Ireland and choose to start his comeback tour here as a thank you for the welcome/response he got the last time he was here. He planned 2 shows, but when demand was higher than expected, he asked if he could do 5. He was told 'yes'. He then upgraded the production quality based on this as it was now economically feasible to do so. Also, they put a lot of planning into a DVD-Documentary that would be partially shot at the 5 shows.
Later on he is told that 2 of the shows have to be dropped and that he would have to choose which of the 400,000 fans to disappoint. Say what you will, he's dedicated to his fans. He couldn't choose & it's unfair to ask him to do so. Later again, he's giving the option of 2 daytime shows. But these would be inferior as the production/lighting effects etc don't work as well in the bright daylight. Again, it's unfair to ask him to choose which fans to disappoint with inferior production.
The '5 or none' ultimatum was to try to force all involved to allow his 400,000 fans to get what they had paid for and had been promised. It didn't work.
Brooks may have an ego, and his music isn't really my taste, but I can't fault the guy for trying to get what he was promised for his fans.

The bolded parts are wholly and completely wrong. Brooks didn't have to choose anything, it was done for him. All he had to do was play the licenced gigs. He and the promoter had no power(therefore no 'choice' came into it) to move the nights around, he was allowed to play the first three sold out gigs only and still is.

We can't even host a few concerts without ****ing it up. It will be a long time before any other band/artists will risk using Croker....and possibly stay clear of Ireland altogether as it is too much hassle/risk.

Yes we can and have hosted many many successful concerts and will continue to do so. The 'process' has been defined and anybody who cocks up an application from now on deserves to be disappointed.

Grayson

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

We can't even host a few concerts without ****ing it up. It will be a long time before any other band/artists will risk using Croker....and possibly stay clear of Ireland altogether as it is too much hassle/risk.

There will be loads of concerts and festivals. There have been loads of them already this year. There are venues comparable to croke park. And there will be concerts in croke park again. Just not on 5 consecutive nights.

Kensington

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

A small but vocal group of residents, an incompetent promoter and a spineless council have now damaged our reputation & economy. We can't even host a few concerts without ****ing it up. It will be a long time before any other band/artists will risk using Croker....and possibly stay clear of Ireland altogether as it is too much hassle/risk.

I hope the promoters are sued by those who bought tickets & are heavily fined for this. I also hope we get clear legislation covering large events like this.

Of course it won't be a long time.

Saying that is akin to saying the fact Slane is limited to one concert a year is destroying our country as a hassle-prone potential concert venue. Slane has a per-annum limit, just as Croke Park has a per-annum. Just that greed got the better of GAA/Aiken in this scenario.

As long as there is money to be made, you bet artists and promoters are going to come play here.

bucketybuck

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

It will be a long time before any other band/artists will risk using Croker....and possibly stay clear of Ireland altogether as it is too much hassle/risk.

Then what the **** have I been listening to from Marley park this past few weeks? :eek:

The chicken little whinging from Gart Brooks/Aiken apologists on this issue is just pathetic in my opinion. Its just a crappily organised concert that got cancelled, deal with it.

AudreyHepburn

Tasden wrote: »

Actually it is. The legislation is there in black and white and the decision should be made based on the legislation that is in place.

Doesn't matter who opposes the gigs (forged signatures or not), who wants the gigs to go ahead for 5 nights, who wants 3 gigs, what american president gets involved. The decisions should be based on current legislation and that alone.

The whole fiasco is a joke. From beginning to end its been ridiculous.

What I meant was people seem to be laboring under the assumption that only this group or that group are fault here when the truth is there are many different aspects to the situation and many different areas where blame could be laid.

The legislation should of course be the main factor but the truth is there are many other areas in which mistakes were maid.

iguana

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

A small but vocal group of residents, an incompetent promoter and a spineless council have now damaged our reputation & economy.

Aye, taking a stand for the sake of the law despite facing a massive public backlash and repeated cries for you to to lose your job is the exact definition of spineless.:rolleyes:

jack presley

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

The legislation should of course be the main factor but the truth is there are many other areas in which mistakes were maid.

Mainly by Aiken/Croke Park I'd say

Happyman42

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

The legislation should of course be the main factor but the truth is there are many other areas in which mistakes were maid.

The 'legislation' worked as it was designed to do. Aiken/Brooks and fans have no automatic god given right to 5 gigs.

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Happyman42 wrote: »

The 'legislation' worked as it was designed to do. Aiken/Brooks and fans have no automatic god given right to 5 gigs.

Yea you're right, this has been total smooth sailing, worked like a dream.

dandyo

Rule Number 1 : There are No Rules!!
Rule Number 2: No outside food

SpaceTime

Daith wrote: »

Bloody hell. Has Brooks got a pact with God or something so that it doesn't rain also because that would affect the show too.

Also this isn't Los Vegas! Ireland's quite far north and Sunset in Dublin is at 9:49 PM

It'll still be quite bright at 10 or even 11pm.

The lighting argument really doesn't apply unless the shows were going on well after 11pm.

Happyman42

nm wrote: »

Yea you're right, this has been total smooth sailing, worked like a dream.

From a legislation point of view, it has. Nobody has over-ruled it, what they have laid down is what is happening. 3 days event licence.

It is others who are having the hissy fits as a probably now futile 'ship' sails closer.

SpaceTime

What I'm getting annoyed with is the attempts of Garth Brooks to basically strong arm his way into running extra concerts by doing this "all or nothing" thing.

The law's the law. It would be quite corrupt to just U-Turn a decision because of an artist getting annoyed about extra gigs being cancelled.

They chanced their arm with adding extra gigs, they lost.

That's life.

Frankly, I think he's showing huge disrespect for the Irish legal system and if we did do a U-Turn that's when we'd really be a 'banana republic'.

seamus

nm wrote: »

Yea you're right, this has been total smooth sailing, worked like a dream.

It has in fact worked like a dream thus far. It's been a fantastic exercise in demonstrating that money and political clout doesn't give you carte blanch to bypass the laws.

Tasden

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

What I meant was people seem to be laboring under the assumption that only this group or that group are fault here when the truth is there are many different aspects to the situation and many different areas where blame could be laid.

The legislation should of course be the main factor but the truth is there are many other areas in which mistakes were maid.

Yep mistakes were made but the legislation remained the same and they were aware of such when making the mistakes.

One direction were the 3 concerts this year. That should've been it. So all talks of residence associations/suits/forged signatures/blame is irrelevant really because it should have only been three concerts this year.

AudreyHepburn

Happyman42 wrote: »

The 'legislation' worked as it was designed to do. Aiken/Brooks and fans have no automatic god given right to 5 gigs.

Did it?

Then why are there still discussions ongoing about how to resolve the issue? Why is there another protest planned? Why is there still a ship of concert props en route. Why is Brooks still saying he is willing to play? Why have the residents done a U-turn on their objections?

SpaceTime

At the end of the day, a lot of people were sold tickets with his name on it for concerts that nobody was sure were going ahead.

That is NOT the City Council's fault.

Also, at this stage they're really messing people around badly. There are a significant number of people who will have now cancelled transportation arrangements. What do they expect them to do now?!

It's a cancelled gig. These things happen, but stop dragging it out with this 'will he / won't he' nonsense.

Happyman42

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Did it?

Then why are there still discussions ongoing about how to resolve the issue? Why is there another protest planned? Why is there still a ship of concert props en route. Why is Brooks still saying he is willing to play? Why have the residents done a U-turn on their objections?

Has that affected the legislation? NO it hasn't. Win for the legislation.

Tasden

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Did it?

Then why are there still discussions ongoing about how to resolve the issue? Why is there another protest planned? Why is there still a ship of concert props en route. Why is Brooks still saying he is willing to play? Why have the residents done a U-turn on their objections?

Because of the ridiculous media circus and people's inability to accept it

force eleven

What ministry did Gareth Brooks get in the re-shuffle? He seems to be running the show at present.

dandyo

force eleven wrote: »

What ministry did Gareth Brooks get in the re-shuffle? He seems to be running the show at present.

Jumpers and Cakes I think

CapricornOne

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Did it?

Then why are there still discussions ongoing about how to resolve the issue?

*An effort to save face

Why is there another protest planned?

*Blind hope

Why is there still a ship of concert props en route.

*Pighead Garth trying to stronghold the "powers that be"

Why is Brooks still saying he is willing to play?

*Similarly to that of the government, another effort to save face

Why have the residents done a U-turn on their objections?

*Public pressure/death threats. Take your pick

Answers on a postcard

SpaceTime

It's Mr Brooks who has decided to cancel the whole thing as he's clearly not making enough money out of just 3 gigs (which was the original plan) and he seems to be unwilling to compromise or return to the original plan.

So, basically that's a big two fingers to the Irish fans and another big two fingers to Irish planning law.

To me it looks like Mr Big Shot wants to override Irish law just so he can make a load of money out of very expensive tickets and when he can't do that, he's gone off in a huff.

I'm not a fan of country and western music or the artist in question, but I certainly wouldn't be spending a cent on anything with his name on it after that fiasco.

They made their own bed, now they're just going to have to sleep in it.

Their current plan seems to be to go off in a huff and hope that the Irish Government solves the problem for them if they publicly lobby hard enough and they hope that's going to be done by the Irish Government riding roughshod over the law!

The law's the law. You can't just make it up as you go along. This is precisely how we landed ourselves in issues with planning before - politicians tweaking it to suit various agendas.

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And given that there is a media circus, there is thousands and thousands of people that want it changed, it has cost the country 50mil or whatever the figure is, it has resulted in 70k tourists either cancelling or being put out/wasted trip, then maybe.. just maybe.. it should be changed to a better process?

Obviously #1 = right to appeal, so the greater good can have a say in future