Garth Brooks concerts ‘biggest thing in Ireland’
Garth Brooks’ long-awaited five-night stand at Dublin’s Croke Park ranks as Ireland’s biggest ever music event, according to Aiken Promotions.
The country music icon performed his first three 80,000-cap concerts at the stadium over the weekend, with the remaining two nights to be held from 16-17 September.
The Croke Park shows come eight years after Brooks’ original five-concert run was controversially scrapped due to planning issues. Despite 400,000 tickets being sold in advance, Dublin City Council only granted permission for three of the nights to go ahead as three gigs had already been held at the venue that year. Brooks insisted on playing “five shows or none at all”.
“It’s been a roller-coaster of eight years,” promoter Peter Aiken tells Sunday Life. “I never thought that when it was called to a halt the last time we would ever get back to this. But we did. And here we are, we got it over the line, with a lot of work, and we got there, finally.
“It felt like this day was never going to come but it is here now, and it is unbelievable.
“This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done, and it is unlikely we’ll ever do anything as big as this again. This is the biggest thing that has ever happened in Ireland. It would be hard to top this.”
“This is probably the biggest cultural event in Ireland in the history of music”
The concerts are the sole European shows on Brooks’ 42-date stadium run and will serve as the tour’s finale.
Aiken Promotions event controller Jim Clarke tells the Press Association via RTE that at least 5% of ticket-holders were travelling from outside Ireland to attend the shows.
“Croke Park normally for a concert would attract 40 to 50% of its patrons from the greater Dublin area. In this case it’s around 15%,” he says. “Thirty countries around the world are represented: 5% of people coming to these concerts are coming into Ireland. So that’s a bonus not just for Garth Brooks and Dublin, but for Ireland as a whole.
“Garth Brooks has become something of an icon in his own right in Ireland.
“400,000 people over five days and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I think he could have sold so many more tickets, such is his popularity across the country. This is probably the biggest cultural event in Ireland in the history of music.”
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Garth Brooks sells out five nights at Croke Park
US country music superstar Garth Brooks has sold-out five nights at Dublin’s 80,000-capacity Croke Park for 2022.
Staged by Aiken Promotions, the 9-11 and 16-17 September dates in Ireland will come eight years after Brooks’ original 2014 five-night stand at the stadium was controversially scrapped due to planning issues.
Dublin City Council only granted permission for three of the gigs to go ahead given that three concerts had already been held at Croke Park that year, but Brooks insisted on playing “five shows or none at all”.
Two shows were initially announced for next year, with a third show and then two more added due to demand, with around 400,000 tickets snapped up for the events.
The concerts will serve as the finale of Brooks’ stadium tour, which resumes in Arkansas, US, in April next year.
I never dreamed we’d get the chance to try this again
“What was supposed to start it all, now is where it all ends,” says the singer in a statement. “I never dreamed we’d get the chance to try this again. I’m so grateful to all who made this happen.”
However, a residents’ group, representing people who live nearby to Croke Park, tells the BBC that Dublin City Council’s decision to grant permission for the extra gigs is “unacceptable”, claiming it breaches a three-concert limit previously imposed on the venue.
“We voiced our objection long ago and have continued over many years,” says Colm Stephens from Clonliffe and Croke Park Area Residents Association.
“We’ve objected to the breaking of the cap of three concerts that was imposed when planning permission for the stadium was awarded back in the 1990s by the planning board.”
Ed Sheeran is also due to play two nights at the venue from 23-24 April next year.
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From Parton to Musgraves: All roads lead to country
“Everyone is talking about country music now,” I can hear someone saying to their friend who is checking out the current swag in the stalls at Country to Country (C2C) Festival in London. “It’s suddenly cool now.”
For years, the genre was associated with the Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw die-hards, and further back to the George Straits, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard eras. But anyone who knows their music understands that just as rock music was born from the influence of blues and jazz, so has the umbrella of country music that crosses over from folk to Americana to bluegrass to pop.
Ten years ago, if you mentioned country music, you were likely to chat about the icons of the industry, and the chances of seeing them live outside of North America were slim, as the cost of bringing their stage shows to the UK, Europe and beyond was too high.
Push forward to the present day and people are talking. Promoters are finding the interest in concerts and events surging and festivals are selling out.
People are listening, buying and relishing in all that there is to hear – and there’s a lot.
People are listening, buying and relishing in all that there is to hear – and there’s a lot
We had our Dolly Parton moment (one of the biggest crowds Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage has seen) and C2C had just had its most successful year to-date including expanded dates in Glasgow, Dublin, Amsterdam and Berlin.
New artists like Lukas Nelson (his father’s namesake has made a huge splash in the country world and is touring worldwide), Thomas Rhett, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton, the list goes on.
Successful TV shows like Nashville have expanded the fan base and paved the way for artists of the programme to continue their musical journey (Charles Esten recently completed a sold-out tour of Europe and Sam Palladio sold out his first UK headline show at the Roundhouse).
But what can we expect for future artists and the business? How dedicated we as industry professionals are in helping to develop these artists achieve a successful career is key, and so far, the future looks bright. National gem “Whispering” Bob Harris has been a huge influence from his early days with The Old Grey Whistle Test, to introducing new artists through his Under the Apple Tree Sessions and hosted stages at festivals around the UK. It was here that I was first introduced to one of the most talented home-grown Americana artists in the UK, Robert Vincent (winner of Best Album at the UK Americana Awards 2018).
There are radio programmes like Chris Country, and Bauer recently debuted the UK’s first national country radio station (Country Hits Radio). New festivals like Black Deer, The Long Road and Nashville Meets London, along with SummerTyne Americana Festival, Ramblin’ Roots and River Town have all been huge supports to these artists. And I look forward to seeing more country/Americana/folk artists crossover to other mainstream festivals as the demand is there.
Hopefully, one day country artists will just be considered ‘artists’
It’s great to see that people are taking the music and the artists more seriously, and the fan base is quite diverse. Artists are not only on country music radio and album charts.
But who decides what ‘country music’ is? As is the recent story with rapper Lil Nas X whose song Old Town Road was removed from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart because “it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current form.” He is currently on course for a Top 5 with said single in the UK Official Charts.
Women in country have set a huge standard as well and brought a lot more attention to international audiences, including Grammy award-winning acts like Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile (most nominated female artist at this year’s awards). Ward Thomas set a precedent in the UK as the first UK country act to have a number-one album in the Official Music Charts.
UK acts like The Shires and Wandering Hearts, alongside US acts like Striking Matches, Sarah Darling and Kelsea Ballerini, are all setting the tone and bringing young audiences on board. It is critically important to help these artists develop and grow and allow more for emerging acts such as Jarrod Dickenson, Kyle Daniel, Megan O’Neill, Laura Oakes etc.
It’s human nature to want to tick a box and list an influence or genre but just as the hope one day is that there isn’t a focus on age or sex, hopefully one day country artists will just be considered ‘artists’.
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