News

U2 tickets for Irish gigs snapped up

U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena
U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena

TICKETS for U2's concerts in Belfast and Dublin sold out with hours of going on sale yesterday.

Fans queued out overnight at the two venues - Dublin's 3Arena and the SSE Arena in Belfast - as well as bombarding the Ticketmaster website from 9am to buy tickets to see the rock band's Innocence and Experience concerts in November.

Demand was so great that more than 50,000 tickets were bought online within around 35 minutes minutes, leaving lots of fans out in the cold.

The band will play Belfast's SSE Arena on November 18 and 19 before four nights at Dublin's 3Arena on November 23 and 24 before breaking for a few days to return to the stage on November 27 and 28.

U2 management said the concerts sold out as fast as the sales could be processed.

"All those who queued overnight or by opening time succeeded in buying tickets," a spokeswoman said.

However, while it was a Beautiful Day for many, others were left frustrated and hit out at Ticketmaster, criticising its virtual queuing system which saw many waiting for up to 30 minutes in an effort to buy tickets.

Ticketmaster tried to placate waiting fans, tweeting that they were "very busy" with selling U2 tickets.

Tickets were limited to two per person and were priced from £30 to £165 for Belfast and from €30 (£21) to €180 (£134) in Dublin.

U2 fans Grace and Katie Press from Lisburn were among the crowds who camped outside the SSE Arena where staff served hot food and drinks to fans to get their tickets.

However, within hours of the tickets selling out on Tickemaster dozens were being resold online within hours at multiples of the face value.

The biggest mark up appeared to be hitting more than £2,500 (€3,408) for a pair of seats directly in front of the stage.