Many months ago Garth Brooks made huge headlines for country fans everywhere when he announced during January that he would be playing a series of shows at Croke Park in Dublin, reliving the series of shows he played during May 1997. The advance interest in the shows was so great that Brooks and his team added more shows...and that, unfortunately, may ruin all five of his proposed concerts that are schedule to take place between July 25-29.
Two of those concerts had been cancelled, according to reports emerging Thursday. Those two are the gigs that were added when the first three quickly sold out. The problem: Brooks and company showed a bit of hubris when they added concerts because they didn't bother to get permits for them first. The Dublin City Council deemed that the second wave of shows didn't receive permits because of the effect on local businesses and residencies, but the more realistic reason lies in a 2009 written agreement tied into a project expanding the stadium. That stipulates that Croke Park can host no more than three concerts a year, which Brooks obviously violated without realizing it.
The denial of two permits means that 160,000 fans now have tickets that aren't any good. That's bad enough, but the bad planning might cost the other 240,000 their gig as well. Brooks entered into a contract for five shows with Aiken Promotions, potentially meaning that if Brooks can't deliver five, he won't deliver any at all.
"I can't say for definite that the three shows are definitely going to to happen," said Peter Aiken. "It is up in the air. I am devastated."
Fans can only hope that this is all part of some dramatic promotional campaign. A note appeared on Brooks' website today stating "The wait is over...7/7," suggesting that a big announcement would be coming on Monday.
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