Report >> 1. Introduction
The Barbra Streisand concert took place at Castletown House, Cellbridge, Co Kildare on Saturday 14th July 2007. This concert was one of a number of high profile outdoor events organised by MCD this Summer. MCD has over 25 years experience and has promoted hundreds of concerts including U2, Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Eagles, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Slane Castle and Oxegen. Over 400,000 music fans will have attended MCD organised outdoor events throughout the summer of 2007.
For the 17,000 approx people who attended the concert at Castetown House it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of the world’s greatest singers perform in Ireland for the first time ever.
Unfortunately for a number of fans who attended the concert that night their experience was not what they had hoped for and expressed their concerns directly to MCD management on the night.
The following morning Sunday 15th July, promoters MCD and CPI issued an apology through a statement (see appendix 2.1) to the national and regional media across print, radio, television and web sites. The statement also encouraged other attendees at the concert who had complaints to make to write directly to MCD. This statement received widespread coverage across the media.
In response to the volume of complaints and the issues raised therein, MCD announced on Tuesday, 17th July the setting up of a specialist committee to conduct a thorough examination of the issues affecting concert goers arising from the Barbra Streisand concert. Mr Pat Byrne, former Garda Commissioner was invited to Chair the committee. Michael Slattery, independent health and safety consultant and Julian Davis, communications consultant were also invited to be part of the committee. Denis Desmond and Justin Green assisted.
The committee agreed the following Terms of Reference:
1. To conduct a thorough examination of all the issues which affected the concert goers at the Barbra Streisand concert which took place at Castletown House on 14th July 2007.
2. To examine complaints made by the concert goers and provide recommendations as to what action should be taken by the promoters MCD if any to address those issues.
While the National Consumer Agency recommended 21 days as a reasonable and adequate amount of time for complainants to register their complaints with the National Consumer Agency and/or MCD, the committee extended this timeline by 9 days to a total of 30 days (14th July – 13th August) for the purpose of this report.
The committee began its work immediately with a site visit to the venue on Thursday, 19th July.
Subsequently the committee met on 13 occasions carrying out 12 interviews with all of the key personnel involved in the setting up and running of the concert including:
1. Sword Event Guard International
2. Seating Co-ordinator / Head Usher
3. Events Parking Limited
4. Ticketmaster
5. MCD:
a. Denis Desmond
b. Event Controller
c. Deputy Event Controller
d. Medical Controller
e. Arena Controller
f. Site Manager
g. Safety Officer
They also had a meeting with the Garda Síochána.
The committee spoke directly to 100 randomly selected complainants representing a cross section and type of complaints received.
The National Consumer Agency was appraised with weekly updates of the committee’s progress throughout the process.
The Committee also noted the findings of summary of complaints published by the Consumer Association of Ireland on 20th August 2007.