2024 Irish Gigs (Confirmed & Rumoured Events)

There was a plan to build a 5k venue next to the 3arena IIRC, but it got canned.

The price of land in the city centre makes it very hard to justify really.

Obviously there's plenty of acts that would be much better suited to a 5k venue. Half of the 3Arena events are reduced capacity. Plenty of multiple-night events (musical/non-musical) in the Olympia/Vicar Street, as well as events at 4,999 capacity temp outdoor spaces in the summer (even more now than ever).

The issue is it doesn't make financial sense to build it. Live Nation aren't going to shell out €100m+ as they can just stick acts in a half-empty 3Arena, audience experience be damned.
Aiken/POD don't have enough events themselves to do it, and Vicar Street would take a massive hit if you brought acts doing 2+ nights there (many of them comedy) to a different venue, as Vicar Street would be empty then. That's assuming they could even get financing.

Regarding location of a venue, given the price of land, it would probably need to be outside the immediate city centre to make it more feasible. Somewhere like this just off the Naas Rd/Kylemore Rd would be decent:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kMj7aVSeJr7whQNC7

Big empty lump of land that could be built on, and acquired much cheaper than anywhere in the city centre. No residential area beside it so minimal objections about noise. 4min walk to a Luas stop. To/from town: 25mins on the Luas from Ha'penny Bridge. 20mins Luas from Heuston Station. Opposite direction, 9mins Luas to the Red Cow Park&Ride, very handy for anyone driving as it's right off the M50. Walkable from Crumlin/Kimmage/Walkinstown/Inchicore/Ballyfermot. S4 bus route nearby which links directly to areas like Terenure, Rathfarnham, Rathmines, and on into UCD. With BusConnects routes coming, it would become even more accessible.

If there a business case for a 2500-5000 venue in Dublin live nation would have built it already. They already have an arena in Dublin that just about does 70 to 80 shows on a good year, the Olympia has had months without a music gig this year, relying on theatre productions and comedy shows to keep the lights on.
there is financial reasons why bands concentrate on theatre sizes venues, that are on average more profitable for all involved.
arena tour require massive budgets/productions and all associated costs can skyrocket and unless you are sure of selling a lot of tickets in each arena you can easily lose money on a arena run whereas a theatre tour selling same tickets can be a handy profit for everyone.

especially in the last decade it’s been an arms race on arena shows and if a artist does a bare bones set up in the 3 arena or elsewhere people do complain that they have shortchanged.
artists are now compared against their peers stage shows, for electronic acts they are compared to likes of chemical brothers.
The reality is for arena shows the spectacle is a major element of the tour commercial and creative success. The music in the show itself becomes less key.
when an act is finally stepping up to arenas they are required by the audience to have a compelling production.
Of course not every act needs elaborate arena show but ones that can get away without one are few and far between.

Nope. That's just your opinion based on zero presented facts. Spoofing as usual.

I've been to plenty of acts at the 3Arena that basically just had a stack of amps, minimal staging, and a few lights that would have been used in a smaller venue too (and probably were at other countries abroad where they played in smaller venues).
The War On Drugs being a prime example. Played the 3Arena (reduced capacity) with little by way of "production". Played Birmingham O2 Academy (capacity 3k) , O2 Arena London (capacity 20k) and Edinburgh O2 Academy (capacity 3k) either side of the 3Arena. Same minimal stage production at all those gigs. Venue size is irrelevant.

No-one was complaining after the 3Arena show that there wasn't a big production spectacle and lots of props:

"arena tour require massive budgets/productions" - Demonstrably false.

ultimately the decision when a band jumps to arenas is a mix of half a dozen factors.
It depends on the budget/guarantee fee that the bands want from an arena show and their historic of ticket sales in that city.
If a guarantee from arena show is low enough, the ticket price needed to generate a profit and history of sales all line up then they will jump.

Look at john bishop in 3 arena. He is only charging €25 for a fully seated show, which will only generate about €175k after Vat.
his agent gets his 15% commission, the promoter takes their cut, venue rental costs etc. He would probably make more from a private function fee than selling out 3 arena on that price.

But again 3-5k is not an arena.

Saw them at ATN. Mad lads!