U2 Continues Its Massive International Ticket Sales & Dublin Tickets Snapped Up In Minutes

(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) —
U2's Vertigo Tour continues to sell out performances and shatter sales records throughout the weekend. Downtown Madrid shut down on February 3 when fans formed a line over a kilometer long to purchase 53,769 tickets for U2's August 11 performance at Estadio Vicente Calderon.

On February 4 in Dublin, Ireland where a second show was announced last week to satisfy fan demand, 160,000 tickets were purchased in less than 50 minutes, setting an Irish box-office record for shows June 24-25 at Croke Park. Paris sales surpassed 75,000 in under one hour, marking the quickest sell-out ever for a show at Stade de France.

European sales on February 5 were no exception. In Holland, following the immediate sell out of the July 13 performance, it took fans less than two hours to sell out an additional two shows July 15-16 for a total of 160,911 tickets sold for the three arena events. Oslo's July 27 performance at Vallehovin was also quick to sell out.

In Vienna the band struck another first by selling 55,000 tickets in 74 minutes for the performance at Ernst Happel Stadium on July 2, beating any previous sales record throughout the country.

In North America, additional shows were added and sold in out Phoenix, Seattle and Vancouver.

European U2 sales continue this week in Barcelona, Gelsenkirchen, Berlin, Munich, Milan and Rome.

The U2 Vertigo Tour is presented and produced by The Next Adventure and RZO Productions. –Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen

U2 Dublin Tickets Snapped Up In Minutes

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Tickets for two concerts by U2 in Dublin were snapped up within minutes Friday in a new Irish box-office record.

Fans of U2, which started in Dublin in 1979, camped out for two nights at some ticket outlets. But the bulk of more than 150,000 tickets, available for $77 to $104 each, were sold on the vendors' Web site.

Within 50 minutes, the tickets were gone — and speculation immediately mounted about a possible third concert.

"Nothing like it has ever been seen in Ireland before. … We could have sold a million tickets," said Justin Green, spokesman for the concert promoters in Ireland.

U2 is scheduled to play Dublin's Croke Park stadium on June 24-25 in the middle of its planned "Vertigo 2005" tour, which starts March 28 in San Diego, Calif., and ends in Lisbon, Portugal, on Aug. 14.

U2 last performed in Ireland in 2001, when it set the nation's previous record for ticket sales. Its initial concert sold out in 45 minutes and, after scheduling a second because of fan demand, those went in 94 minutes.