Aiken Promotions have today released a statement regarding the licence application for the five Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park.
In order to clarify recent reports Aiken explained that the company followed the licensing process as laid down under the current regulations and submitted their application 14 weeks prior to Brooks first date, which is an additional four weeks than required.
The information details in the application included the full stadium layout, staging and all temporary structures, emergency plans to the impact the event will have on the local environment.
The statement continues to give a step-by-step account of the planning process and assures fans that the necessary contact with Dublin City Council and other statutory agencies was made throughout the entire process.
The statement reads in full:
It is the standard practise in Ireland to inform the licensing authority, then to announce an event and then to put the tickets on sale in advance of a detailed licence application begin submitted.
Under the current regulations the licence application must be submitted 10 weeks prior to the event. In the case of the Garth Brooks event Aiken Promotions submitted the licence application on 17 April 2014, 14 weeks prior to the date of the first concert.
The information in the licence application includes:
1. The full stadium layout to include surrounding area
2. The stage and all temporary structures
3. The emergency plan
4. Safety strategy
5. Impact on the local environment
6. Stewarding
7. Traffic management
8. Sanitation
9. Environmental issues
It takes time in order to collate this information. An application cannot be submitted until all this information is confirmed. Equally Dublin City Council cannot grant a licence for an event unless they have all the relevant details of that event.
It also needs to be demonstrated within the application that the stage being proposed could be built within a reasonable time (working between 8am – 10pm) and that it could also be taken out after the concerts in the time allocated.
After the press conference on 20 Jan 2014 Garth Brooks met with Aiken Promotions and his crew including the lighting, sound, video and special effects teams for a number of hours in Croke Park outlining plans for the shows. Garth Brooks chatted through lots of ideas he had regarding staging and how the show should look. He then went to the various levels of Croke Park and took photos of where the stage would be plotted. The team then generated several 3D images of how the show would look from each of the different locations within the stadium.
Over the next few days the team incorporated these ideas within the plans.
Drafts went back and forth and more changes were incorporated.
A further meeting was held in Nashville and more detail was added to the plans.
Further / final meetings were held in Croke Park with the crew and show designers and in the following weeks show plans were finalised.
A final set of plans were then ready to be submitted into the licence application.
Aiken Promotions were in contact with Dublin City Council and other statutory agencies throughout this whole process.
