None of the five Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park will go ahead this month.
Aiken Promotions confirmed the news in a statement this afternoon, saying the decision had been made “with great regret” and the ticket return process would be outlined tomorrow.
“Aiken Promotions have exhausted all avenues regarding the staging of this event,” said a spokesperson.
“We are very disappointed for the 400,000 fans who purchased tickets for The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event.”
The announcement comes after mediator Kieran Mulvey told The Irish Times that the singer “no longer feels welcome in Ireland” following the controversy surrounding the concerts and backlash to his earlier statement that he would play “five or none at all”.
“He’s a human being, a country western singer-he’s not a diplomat. We’ve all said things that maybe in reflection you thought, ‘I shouldn’t have made that remark’.”
He added that the debacle could also damage Ireland’s reputation as a concert venue in the future.
“There’s nobody happy, this result pleases nobody. Sometimes I wonder where is the common sense in all this.
“This has attracted an extraordinary amount of adverse publicity in the music industry in the US, which is a massive industry. Our competitors will use this to bring the concerts to their countries.”
Over 400,000 people bought tickets for the Croke Park concerts and booking agent Ticketmaster has also released a statement requesting that their customers be patient while they work on a system for handling the refund process.
“Ticketmaster has received confirmation that the five Garth Brooks concerts scheduled for Croke Park are no longer taking place. We are working on a plan to make the cancellation process as simple and convenient as possible for customers.
However, the scale of this operation is unprecedented in the Irish entertainment industry and therefore we would ask customers to continue to be patient while we finalise our plan. Full details of the plan will be published tomorrow.”
