The ugly spectre of dynamic pricing will be vanquished when tickets go on sale for Oasis’s two-night stint in Slane Castle next September, but fans hoping to see their rock ’n’ roll stars on the cheap will still be disappointed.
One of the worst-kept secrets in show business was let out of the bag on Monday when Oasis confirmed they would be returning to the Co Meath venue next autumn.
Ticket prices were also confirmed and, in marked contrast to last time, the details were commendably specific.
Standard tickets for front standing will cost €211.25 while general admission tickets will be €181.25. A beloved service charge of €10.50 comes attached to each ticket.
Those seeking seats in the shadow of Slane Castle will pay €501.25, a price that includes a reserved grandstand and entry through a dedicated area as well as free parking. There will also be an “exclusive hospitality area” and “premium toilet facilities”.
The specificity of the pricing breakdown is welcome, even if the actual prices seem fairly eye-watering.
Transparency is key here and its absence was keenly felt when the first Oasis comeback was confirmed just over two years ago.
Ahead of that widely anticipated sale, fans were told tickets would cost “from €86.50″. While that was true, attempts by The Irish Times to establish the broader range of prices failed after our queries were ignored by the promoters.
Once the ticket sale began, it quickly became clear that “from” – positioned before “€86.50″ in the early publicity – was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
The sale started in earnest on August 31st 2024, with ticket prices quickly soaring. It left many fans feeling like they were being gouged.
While some people who had been given access to the presale bought standing tickets for €86.50, many others paid closer to €175 when the general sale started hours later.
Worse was to come.
Within a couple of hours of the general sale starting – and as a result of “in-demand pricing” – standing tickets that had cost less than €100 hours earlier were being sold on Ticketmaster for well over €400. This was happening with the approval of the promoters and the band’s management.
There were some who defended this so-called dynamic pricing model. It was, they said, no different to an airline selling the last few seats on a plane for more than those sold months in advance; or a hotel selling its last available room for a higher price than the first.
Such an argument did not wash with many. It completely failed to take into account the uniqueness of a concert experience and the emotional baggage that comes with a long anticipated reunion. On top of that, there was a booking window of less than five minutes to make a decision.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) certainly wasn’t buying it and after receiving a large volume of complaints, it launched an investigation into the practice in September 2024, as did its counterpart in the UK.
The outcry prompted Oasis to drop the dynamic pricing model for the remainder of their world tour.
Earlier this month, a two-year CCPC investigation culminated in a legal action against Ticketmaster over what it said were attempts to mislead Oasis fans. The case has yet to be heard but the District Court has been told the charges will be “fully contested” by the ticketing platform.
Legal actions aside, at least fans have a better idea now of what to expect before they join the virtual ticket queues. Despite the high prices, it seems we can expect a similar buying frenzy to the one seen in 2024, with the 160,000 tickets likely to be snapped up in no time.