Five shows have been announced

Garth Brooks is making an impactful return to Dublin, Ireland’s Croke Park in September 2022 for five shows, 25 years after his historic 1997 performances at the park. Hundreds of thousands of fans were in the queue for tickets before the first two shows (Sept 9th & 10th) went on sale this morning (Thurs, Nov 25th). Due to overwhelming demand, a third was added for September 11th within an hour before the fourth for September 16th and fifth for September 17th were announced shortly after. All went on sale immediately.

“IRELAND!!!!! Just waking up to the news!!!! Unbelievable !!!!! All my love to you!!!” Brooks tweeted on Thursday morning.

“He is bigger than he was the last time. There were 100,000 people logged onto Ticketmaster before the concerts went on sale,” promoter Peter Aiken says of the on sale. “That’s unheard of, even in the United States. You would normally expect 30,000 to 40,000 people in the queue for a big outdoor show.”

More than 400k from around the world sought to get tickets to Brooks’ highly-anticipated return to Ireland next fall. By press time, Ticketmaster shows “Low Availability” for each of the five shows which can house more than 82k per night between the standing and seating areas. These are the only European dates on The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour. Brooks has confirmed that these are the final dates of the three year tour that started in 2019 and saw multiple postponements and cancelations due to the pandemic, including the final five of 2021.

The concerts will be held eight years after his 2014 cancelation of five shows at the same venue. Brooks canceled those concerts after the Dublin City Council only granted permits for three after local residents complained of traffic and noise concerns. More than 400,000 refunds were given following Brooks’ “all or nothing” ultimatum.

However, this time around, the Dublin City Council granted licenses for all five shows before going on sale. Earlier this week Brooks appeared in Dublin for a press conference and questioned his ability to sell that many tickets again.

“You had 400,000 tickets in one city and one show. There’s no way we are going to do those numbers again. Would I like it? Yes. Is it going to happen? I think it would be impossible,” Brooks states.

Local residents living around the venue have protested the amount of shows being produced in 2022. The Croke Park Area Residents Association (CPARA) have a longstanding agreement that three special events can take place at the famed venue per year. Licenses were already permitted for Ed Sheeran to perform two shows in April 2022, bringing the total to seven.

For those worried that the licenses could get pulled, the CPARA’s Colm Stephens says the Dublin City Council has overruled the residents.

“There is no legal course of action we can now follow. The City Council make a decision that cannot be challenged in any way. I don’t know how people will put it with it. Many people will try to move out of the area when Garth Brooks is there and abandon their houses. It will be a serious consideration for people. Unfortunately it will be in school term time (but) I am absolutely considering it,” Stephens tells RTÉ Radio 1’s Claire Byrne Show. “We may have to get offside to make room for Garth Brooks to make millions on the backs of the Irish people.”

Brooks says 17 dates are scheduled for North America before wrapping in Dublin. The first of those was announced this week for Fayetteville, AR on April 23rd at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium with additional ones to follow.

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