U2 fans queuing for ‘Joshua Tree’ tickets find streets have no pain

U2 fans who have queued outside the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin over the weekend are hoping that on Monday morning they will find what they’re looking for.

On Friday at 4pm, Vincent Kearns from Rathfarnham took his place at the top of the queue for tickets for the Joshua Tree 30th anniversary concert – well in advance of the ticket office opening at 9am on Monday.

He “had to do it” he said. When he saw the date of the Croke Park concert – July 22nd – he said he knew he had no choice: it was his 50th birthday.

“My wife was hoping we would do something as a family,” he said, adding that as a subscriber to U2.com he could buy four tickets in advance, but he wants more for his wife – if he can persuade her – and extended family members.

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“Who could refuse U2 singing for your 50th?” he asked, producing his driving licence, unasked, to prove his birth date.

“The homeless are terrific,” he said of spending the weekend on the street. “ It is the students coming out of the pubs drunk and messing which are a nuisance.”

Celebrating

Queuing since Saturday night, when he celebrated his 45th birthday, was Martin Gannon of Ballyfermot in Dublin. “I kinda arrived and went celebrating and got back here at 2am on Sunday” he said.

“Watching people here overnight it is like the lunatics have left the asylum,” he said, adding that those who spoke to him were “harmless”. He hoped to buy six tickets and bring a group which includes his brother based in Glasgow.

Like Mr Kearns he had also attended the original 1987 Joshua Tree concerts in Croke park and both men will sleep out at Croke Park the night before this year’s concert in order to “get good positions right down in the pit in front of the band when the gates open”.

Dave Griffith (43), who was also in the queue, was just 14 when U2 played Croke Park in 1987 on the Joshua Tree tour. "I've been a fan since 1986," he said adding that unlike his friends in the queue he would not be sleeping out the night before the concert. "I will meet friends and go for a few drinks instead," he said. He has written a book, U2 Ireland, detailing locations associated with the band.

U2 are expected to add a second Croke Park concert after the July 22nd show sells out.