In a new box office sales record for Ireland, 90,000 tickets for next year's Robbie Williams concert in Dublin's Phoenix Park were sold on the first day they were on offer.
Only a quarter of the 120,000 concert tickets remain on sale and, given current demand, these are due to be snapped up before the end of the week, according to promoters MCD.
Williams is going where not even U2 has gone before in choosing to play Phoenix Park on August 9th next.
The biggest home venue the Irish rock band has played is the 80,000-capacity Slane Castle. Tickets for the two U2 gigs at the Co Meath venue last year sold out in 45 and 94 minutes respectively.
Ticketmaster drafted in an extra 300 staff on Saturday for the opening of sales on the Williams concert. It also set up an extra 500 telephone lines, and, for the first time, doubled the volume of space on its website for bookings.
MCD said queuing safety systems were implemented to ensure that every fan who had queued overnight on Friday secured a ticket.
No corporate or group bookings were allowed and each person was restricted to purchasing four tickets.
Gardaí said they received no reports of trouble at overnight queues.
Mr Eamonn O' Connor, general manager of Ticketmaster, described the sales as "incredible. Robbie Williams is the hottest act around and has outsold every other artist in the world."
In a statement through MCD, the artist himself remarked: "Irish people have always been extremely supportive. I'm delighted at the reaction to the Phoenix Park concert."
The event is part of a 15-date European tour which will take in eight countries, starting with Scotland in June 2003.
Tickets for the concert, which is sponsored by The Irish Times, remain available from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide or by telephoning a 24-hour "Robbie Williams Hotline" at 1890 719 889 or 1890 925 100, or by logging on to: www.ticketmaster.ie
