THE HIGH Court has dismissed an action by the owners of Dublin’s O2 concert venue aimed at preventing the Citywest Hotel complex hosting a Disney on Ice show.
Amphitheatre Ireland Ltd, owner and operator of the O2, had claimed the hosting of the show next December and January would be a breach of the terms of the planning permission granted to the convention centre at Citywest.
Yesterday, Mr Justice John Hedigan dismissed the application by Amphitheatre against HSS Developments, trading as Mansfield Group, Keating Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin. He ruled there was nothing in the planning conditions that precludes Citywest from hosting the show.
Amphitheatre Ireland had asked the judge for a range of orders, including one prohibiting use of the centre for the Disney on Ice show. It argued the permitted uses of the centre excludes public concerts and allows only for it to be used as a conference centre or function room.
The Mansfield group argued they were fully compliant with the terms of the centre’s planning permission and alleged O2 brought its action for commercial reasons.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Hedigan said he did not accept Disney on Ice was a concert. While it was undoubtedly a public event, it was not a performance by an orchestra or a rock band. A concert in the ordinary sense of that word would refer to an event primarily about the performance of songs or other music, he said.
Music may be an element of Disney on Ice but it was an event where the primary motivation of the audience would be to hear the music performed, he said.
He did not wish to express any opinion whether the notion of a public concert requires the performance of live music as it was not unknown for singers giving public performances “to mime to pre-recorded music”. The judge also held Disney on Ice is in the nature of a public function and was similar to events previously held at Citywest such as Lord of the Dance.