Summer 2009 was a season to test the Irish live music market. Gig-goers thought carefully before buying, and the rain made outdoor concerts less appealing. But will ticket prices fall next year, asks JIM CARROLL

SUMMER 2009 was a season to test the mettle of all involved in live music in Ireland. The recession meant there was less disposable income around for ticket purchases, while another wet summer made the idea of standing in a field to watch a band even more unpalatable than usual.

For every major sell-out show such as AC/DC, Oasis or Take That, there were others such as Kasabian, Ry Cooder and The Eagles who were forced to trot out the “unforeseen circumstances” excuse to explain a cancellation or a reduced number of shows.

Add in the usual off-stage distractions from the Livelinecontingent and you begin to wonder why live music promoters bother getting out of bed in the first place.

Looking back, however, promoters are fairly bullish about how the summer went.

“It wasn’t too bad,” says Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions. “You know, even when times were booming, there were shows which didn’t sell and just because a show doesn’t sell doesn’t mean it’s a bad act.

“We saw some great business. Springsteen came back for a second year and did 80,000 tickets, which was quite remarkable. Rod Stewart did 55,000 tickets between Limerick, Cork and Dublin. Beyoncé did a lot of tickets.”

Electric Picnic promoter John Reynolds says a very different sales pattern to previous years was apparent. “People were more careful with their money. With the Electric Picnic, it was slower and the sales came later, but, ultimately, we got the same result.

“The Leonard Cohen shows we did in the O2 were the exact same. The first two shows went straight away, the third show went a little slower and the fourth one sold out on the last week. The demand is still there, but people are taking their time to buy tickets.”

At Castle Palooza, one of the growing number of smaller Irish festivals, Cillian Stewart found the recession had reduced the number of brands seeking to get involved with live music.

“We got the crowd we always get, but the recession did affect us, in that sponsorship was hard to get because everyone’s budgets had been cut and it was harder to get them onboard. We did get some, but we will have to look at it again for next year because you do need sponsorship to do the gig.”

Naturally, there were some shows which just did not do the business at the door. Peter Aiken puts his hand up to take responsibility for one such flop. “Sometimes you book an act because you’re a fan and I grew up listening to The Eagles, so I thought it was a good idea to take them to Galway. They don’t get many big shows there and we did a great show with Dylan there a while back. But I got the pricing wrong and it went on sale too late, and that was a bad call.”

Promoters recognise that gig-goers are now looking at ticket prices very carefully before committing. “A few years ago, you could charge whatever you liked and people didn’t care because they had money,” says Indiependence festival promoter Shane Dunne. “People still have money, but they’ve become far more price-sensitive and see a festival like Indiependence with 60 good acts as good value.”

Peter Aiken points out that there’s nothing new about promoters getting it in the ear over ticket prices. “We did U2’s first Croke Park shows back in 1985 and people thought the ticket price was too high. Ticket prices are high, but the shows are better than they’ve ever been, and the production that goes into these shows is incredible and it has to be paid for.

“Recession or not, there is no reduction in the size of the production for some of these shows. It used to be that a show with 10 trucks was a huge production. Now they’re arriving in with 23 trucks for a show in the O2. That has to be paid for. And yeah, the grosses for some of those shows are incredible, but there’s not much profit at the end of it. Take That made good money this summer, but they could have made even more money with a smaller production.”

Which means there is unlikely to be any reduction in ticket prices in the near future. “The recession and slowdown in ticket sales has hit Ireland more than it has hit the UK,” says John Reynolds.

“There are certain agents who are very cognisant that the downturn is much more considerable here than it has been elsewhere. But then there are other agents who still play one promoter off another to push up the fee and the ticket price.

“We did the bill for the Picnic before the real downturn happened and had it more or less booked by the end of January, so we were working on last year’s prices. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to see any great reduction in fees for next year’s bill.”

Both Castle Palooza and Indiependence expect to have to increase prices in 2010. “It’s a hard one to say for sure right now, though I’d say the ticket price will increase but only by a very small amount,” says Cillian Stewart. “The reason for that is we want to continue to keep our numbers low and to do that, we need to up the price a little.”

“Our ticket price might go up by €10 next year,” explains Shane Dunne, “but for that, we’ll have an extra stage, extra bands, additional installations, lots of things we didn’t have this year and possibly move to a drier site.”

All are actively planning for 2010. Who we might see in Ireland next summer “really depends on who’s touring,” says Aiken. “There’s not an awful lot of acts going out next summer at the moment, but 2011 looks busy. It’s just a cycle of the business. In terms of festivals, no, we have no plans. Both Electric Picnic and Oxegen cater for their audiences very well. You’d have to be looking at a 10,000-capacity festival, and I don’t know if there’s room for one like that at the moment.”

Cillian Stewart, however, believes that we will see a rise in smaller festivals and that that’s what audiences want. “There has been a huge increase in people going to the smaller festivals, like what happened in the UK in the past few years. People want a better choice. They want to go somewhere with their friends and they don’t want to get separated from them in a big crowd.”

Indiependence’s Shane Dunne agrees. “People are definitely looking for alternatives to Oxegen and the Electric Picnic. They want something cheaper, but with decent quality acts. You don’t have to book The Killers or Kings Of Leon, but if you go after acts like, say, Super Furry Animals and build a bill and ticket price around them, you will get an audience. People are actively looking for something alternative now.”

John Reynolds thinks caution will be the byword in the future. “Promoters should be a lot more careful with acts who have toured too many times over the past few years because those things will come home to roost. Next summer, you’ll see promoters passing on certain shows that they would have taken up previously.

“We will certainly be more cautious because, before this, I was a little too swashbuckling in terms of what we were doing. But we’ll definitely start two new events in 2010 because people still

want to go out. One will be 5,000-capacity and the other will be 10,000-capacity.

One is a really nice, very quirky idea.”

The Electric Picnic is now owned and run by EP Republic, a joint venture between Festival Republic (which is co-owned by Live Nation and Denis Desmond from MCD’s Gaiety Investments) and Reynolds.

Reynolds says that the first year of their partnership on the Stradbally event went “fantastically well”. Regarding next year’s event, he expects to have a clearer idea shortly. “Myself and Melvin [Benn, Festival Republic chief] did a deal and then we went straight into doing separate things. We haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk at all,” Reynolds says.

“We plan to do that in the next month, so I don’t know what will happen next. I value and like our independence, but what the future holds with them [Festival Republic], I think, can be only positive.”

A note from a "very happy" MCD

THE TICKET also requested an interview from MCD Concerts boss Denis Desmond for this feature. A spokesman for

MCD asked that questions be forwarded by e-mail. Questions dealing with MCD's shows this summer, ticket sales and prices and Desmond's involvement with Festival Republic and Live Nation were forwarded. The full list of questions is published on the On The Record blog.

This is the statement which was received in return: "Overall, MCD were very happy with ticket sales over the summer season with 800,000 tickets sold including three U2 sold-out concerts at Croke Park (240,000 tickets), plus sold-out shows by Take That, Oasis, AC/DC, Coldplay, Oxegen 80,000 tickets sold out on Saturday and Sunday while 5,000 short on Friday.

"MCD will continue to use bigger open-air venues such as Marlay Park, Croke Park, Slane Castle, Punchestown etc. Artists that appeared at smaller open-air venues such as Donnybrook and Malahide Castle while the Point Theatre was closed will play the 02.

"Ticket prices are not set as a result of competition between promoters but agreed with artist agents in line with bands' stature, their production costs/ overheads, venue capacity etc.

"Ticket prices in Ireland are comparable to UK taking the above into account and will continue to remain unchanged unless there are any increases in local costs such as VAT, insurance, Imro etc.

"We constantly strive to look for new opportunities, improve and review all elements of our business ensuring best practice, quality and value for both Irish fans and artists particularly during this time."