MCD ranks 11th globally among concert promoters with €155m in ticket sales in 2022

The promoters of Electric Picnic, MCD Productions, last year clocked up 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 largest player in live music, Live Nation, which part-owns MCD, generated $4.6 billion in global box office receipts from 52.4 million tickets sold in 2022.

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Denis Desmond, the managing director at MCD Productions, described the company’s ticket sales as “a great result”, adding that it was “great to see demand is bigger than ever for live shows”.

The $165 million in 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”.

He said Irish singer Dermot Kennedy would play to 155,000 people this summer over five shows, with three taking place at Thomond Park in Limerick and two at Marlay Park in Dublin.

The main driver behind the Aiken Promotions performance was the five sell-out Garth Brooks gigs at Croke Park in September. 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.

The figures show that Ed Sheeran’s two Croke Park gigs made $12.76 million at the box office for Aiken Promotions after selling 140,487 tickets while the performer’s two concerts at Thomond Park last year generated $5.19 million after selling 61,780 tickets.

The Pollstar figures show that two MCD-promoted Westlife gigs at the Aviva Stadium last year brought in $6.79 million at the box office after selling 87,367 tickets. The sold-out Harry Styles concert at the Aviva Stadium last June generated $5.09 million with 50,422 tickets sold.