New State of the Art Music Venue
Last week’s biggest event in the city was the launch of the O2 concert venue on December 17th with the annual Childline concert. But last night Dubliners were wowed with Coldplay live on stage. Now the largest indoor, state of the art music and theatre venue in the country, it’s at The Point Village on the North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands. The arena has a capacity of over 14,500 standing or 9,500 seated and organisers intend to stage 150 live events each year. Built on the same site where the previous Point Theatre was, the scale of this venue means that the city’s dwellers will now be able to see full-scale productions that previously didn’t come here because of size restrictions. Some artists George staged only a scaled down version of their shows in the venue as it was in its original incarnation. And some of the larger productions just didn’t come at all.
This is Ireland’s first major naming rights deal, renamed after the major telecommunications brand, similar to the deal done in London’s venue of the same name. Live Nation, a live events company based in Beverly Hills, California, own half of the venue. O2 paid €25 million and, as part of the deal, 10-15 per cent of concert tickets will be made available to their 1.6 million Irish subscribers up to 48 hours in advance of going on general sale.
Coldplay will play a second concert tonight as they continue the UK and Ireland leg of the Viva La Vida tour. A brand new addition to the set list, just for Dublin, has been a cover of one of the best tunes of the last century by legendary Irish band The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York is a Christmas classic.