Garth Brooks concerts covered by law banning ticket touting

Tickets before booking fees are priced at €65.56 for general area standing, and €81 for seated. Bookings will have a ticket limit of eight per person.

Brooks is expected to sell out the two nights in Croke Park set for September 9 and 10 next year, and has hinted he would love to do more.

At a press conference on Monday, he called it “an honour and an extreme joy” to be playing in Ireland again after he cancelled the five sold-out gigs he had planned in 2014.

He said if there’s a “blessing” in the “curse” of the cancelled gigs, it’s that “there is a chance that this artist and those people who were sweet enough to get tickets before now have a chance to hopefully see each other again”.

“It’s the greatest privilege and joy an artist can have to play in Ireland,” he told reporters. “It’s the greatest heartache to be told you can’t.”

Brooks said being unable to play those gigs felt like a “death in the family”.

The new ticketing legislation, which came into effect on July 31, requires venues and organisers to write to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to request their location or event to be included under the law to prohibit reselling of tickets above face value.

The issue came to the fore earlier this month after the Football Association of Ireland applied for the designation ahead of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier with Portugal.

At the time, the Department of Enterprise had urged venues and organisers to make sure they applied for designated status.

Until an event or venue has been designated, tickets can still be sold above face value without it being illegal.

According to Minister of State Robert Troy, at least six venues and 18 events have been already designated under the act.

The ticket touting laws were proposed by then-Fine Gael TD for Dublin North-West Noel Rock.

He told the Irish Examiner that big events like Garth Brooks were “exactly what I had in mind” when designing the bill.

“At times, it had seemed a case of if tomorrow never comes, but this bill is now in place to protect fans,” he said.

“I’d seen the likes of Coldplay, U2, and indeed Garth Brooks, having tickets sold for multiple times face value. Real fans wouldn’t do that. And this is about making sure that real fans get to go see these events.”