DUBLIN City Council have reaffirmed their position not to allow all five Garth Brooks’ concerts to go ahead, and urged the singer to reconsider performing the three permitted Croke Park dates.
In a statement released by the council following a meeting on Monday evening, it was reinstated that the decision to only grant the event licence for the shows on Friday 25 – Sunday 27 July cannot legally be reversed.
The news comes just as it emerged that concert promoter Peter Aiken flew to the US in a final attempt to persuade Brooks to go ahead with the licenced concerts at GAA’s headquarters.
In a statement the council’s chief executive Owen Keegan said that "it is not legally possible for the Council to reopen the decision to grant a licence or to amend the conditions attaching to that licence."
Other members of the council are reported to have backed calls to allow all five shows to go ahead and voted in favour of motions for an alternative venue to be found.
Mr Aiken flew from Ireland this morning to the US, following the outcome of last night’s council meeting, in a bid to meet with Brooks face-to-face and persuade him to go ahead with the three permitted shows.
Mediator Kieran Mulvey, who had been involved in negotiations with Aiken Promotions over the weekend, explained that Mr Aiken believes meeting the country singer in person might have a more effective outcome rather than communicating through email and telephone.
“There’s a time difference involved in all of this but maybe by this evening, something will have emerged,” Mr Mulvey told Newstalk.
“There is a logistics issue, there is equipment [for the concert] that needs to be brought over here... a degree of persuasiveness is still to be exerted.”
Mr Aiken will today fight “to maximise what has been done,” he added.
“[Peter Aiken] has gone. There are friends of this country in the US that may persuade Mr Brooks to go ahead with three concerts.”
Brooks is expected to discuss the on-going controversy surrounding his Croke Park concerts during a press conference this Thursday at 5pm.
The press conference will be streamed live on Brooks’ official website.
