Country superstar Garth Brooks has friends in cold places all over Ireland this morning.
At 9am, tickets will go on sale for his two concerts in Croke Park on July 25th and 26th next summer. Demand could see Brooks add a third concert.
Fans have been queuing since the early hours of Sunday morning, which may say as much about their faith in Brooks as it does about their lack of faith in internet technology.
Despite all the protestations from Ticketmaster that all will be well this morning, thousands of fans have preferred to do it the old fashioned way by queuing, sometimes for days on end.
If medals were handed out for dedication to the cause, the 15 hardened fans who have been queuing since 3.45am on Sunday morning deserve the highest commendation - or at least a meet and greet - for braving days and nights of foul January weather.
Among them was Roisin Slater (40) who opted for a four day and night marathon outside Stewart's in Dungannon.
“We are true followers of Garth Brooks. We can’t be sure that the system (Ticketmaster) won’t crash or not if it is overloaded,” she said. “It’s going really strange going home on Thursday evening, put your feet up and not worry where everybody is going to be sleeping tonight or where the food is coming from.”
Help was on hand from another Garth Brooks fan from Monaghan who brought up a camper van so those queueing could take turns to sleep, get changed and shower.
In Cavan town, cousins cousins Stephanie Cauley (24) and Kelly Beard (25) queued from 6pm on Tuesday evening. Yesterday evening, there were 50 fans behind them.
“I’d be afraid of the lines closing up and we wouldn’t get tickets so we wouldn’t take the risk,” said Ms Cauley.
Both women are barely old enough to remember the last time Brooks was in Ireland in 1997, but they have grown up with his music in the background.
“It’s been freezing cold, but it will be so worth it,” she said.
Queues have also been reported outside music shops in Cork, Limerick, Dundalk, Longford and Galway.
Tickets go on sale at 9am this morning from all Ticketmaster outlets and from ticketmaster.ie.
“We’re geared up and ready for tomorrow’s sale, it’s all systems go,” a Ticketmaster spokesman said yesterday. “ It is going to be one of our biggest and busiest ticket sales. We have doubled the staff in our call centre to answer the phones and we expect all our Ticketmaster outlets in Ireland to be extremely busy. We will also have security at outlets.”
