MCD Sells 2.4M Tickets

The promoters of Electric Picnic, MCD Productions, last year recorded box-office revenues of $165 million (€155.6 million) after selling 2.454 million tickets for gigs across Ireland last year.

Figures released by US trade industry journal Pollstar show that MCD Productions ranked 11th overall among the world’s top 200 promoters for 2022.

In a bumper year for the industry here after Covid-19 shut down the live entertainment business for 2020 and most of 2021, Pollstar figures show that Aiken Promotions (Ireland) generated $87.98 million at the box office after selling 1.15 million tickets.

The $165 million in MCD ticket sale revenue compares to pre-Covid box-office revenues of $159.29 million from 2.3 million tickets sold by MCD in 2019.

Mr Desmond said 2023 was “shaping up to be just as busy as 2022 with a lot of sold-out shows already, including Harry Styles at Slane Castle, Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys and The Weeknd”.

The Pollstar figures rank the Garth Brooks series of gigs in Ireland as the fourth-highest grossing worldwide last year, generating $28.65 million at the box office after selling 401,000 tickets.

Those concerts, along with Ed Sheeran’s gigs, catapulted Croke Park to rank 13th among the world’s top 100 stadiums after it generated $41.2 million in box office receipts from 541,487 attendees in 2022. The Aviva Stadium in Dublin generated $18.05 million in box office receipts from 185,539 tickets while Malahide Castle generated $10.76 million in box office receipts from 174,260 tickets sold.