‘Concert tickets aren’t too costly – hotels are’
GIG tickets are affordable in Ireland – but the biggest problem is hotels quadrupling their rates, according to concert promoter Denis Desmond.
Mr Desmond, of MCD Productions, said: ‘Ticket prices are affordable. There is a huge cost in putting on shows, be it insurance, ferries, flights, hotels, wages, etc.’
He added that tickets here are cheaper than for West End or Broadway shows.
He said: ‘The biggest problem is hotels quadrupling their rates on the back of concerts and sporting events. The Government should step in and make it illegal.’ Mr Desmond, 70, was asked to comment on trade industry journal Pollstar’s figures showing that MCD Productions/ Live Nation last year generated €122.67million in ticket sales as the promoters sold more than two million tickets in Ireland.
The average price of an MCD concert ticket here last year, based on the Pollstar figures, was €58. Mr Desmond said that MCD Productions, in its joint venture business with Live Nation, expects to sell three million tickets here in 2024.
This is 50% more than last year and will include three sell-out shows by Taylor Swift at the Aviva Stadium in the capital and four sell-out nights by Coldplay at Dublin’s Croke Park this summer.
On MCD’s 2023 performance, Mr Desmond said he was happy with sales considering the lack of stadium shows.
He said: ‘Harry Styles at Slane Castle and Dermot Kennedy at Marlay Park and Thomond Park shows were special.’
He said Kennedy sold 155,000 tickets in Ireland in 2023, an achievement that he described as ‘huge’.
Mr Desmond also said that the joint venture with Live Nation continues and that there are ‘new opportunities in Galway, Limerick and Cork’.
The most recent accounts for MCD Productions’ parent firm, LN Gaiety Holdings Ltd – the UK-based Mr Desmond’s joint venture with Live Nation – show pre-tax profits of £42.39million (€50million) in 2022. The business operates here and in the UK, and its non-British revenues in 2022 totalled £148million (€172million) out of total revenues of £470million (€550million).