Bocelli fever strikes

BOCELLI sells faster than Bono - tickets to his summer concert in Cork sold out yesterday in just 20 minutes raising the possibility of a second performance.

The clamour to see the blind Italian tenor began at 9.30am when 10,000 tickets, ranging in price from €55 to €155, went on the market.

Steep prices did nothing to curb demand for a chance to see what promises to be the highlight of the city’s Capital of Culture year on July 15.

Yesterday a spokesperson for promoter Jim Aiken said it was likely he would talk to Bocelli’s management towards the end of the week about a possible second concert. “It’s too early to say at this stage, but it will probably be three or four days before we decide where we’re going.”

Tickets for the Collins Barracks performance were snapped up within 20 minutes of going on sale yesterday morning - faster than tickets for U2’s Irish gigs which went on sale earlier this year. U2’s summer concerts in Croke Park took 50 minutes to sell out - smashing all previous Irish box office records - but there were 16 times as many tickets for the Dublin gig.

Ticketmaster’s Eamonn O’Connor said demand for the Cork concert was “unprecedented.”

“This is one of the fastest selling shows we have ever had in the country,” he said.

Fans in Cork queued outside Ticketmaster’s Merchants Quay office from 4am on Monday; some complained that shopping centre staff used a staff entrance to skip the queue.

Collins Barracks, the concert venue, is situated on the site of an ancient entrenchment called Rath Mór or the Great Fort - a strategic site from early Christian times. A two-hundred-year-old four-acre square, which is one of the largest in Europe, is a focal point within the Barracks. It is surrounded by beautifully proportioned three-storey Georgian Buildings. The Andrea Bocelli concert will be staged on this historical square.

Bocelli’s Cork concert is supported by Opera 2005 and Thomas Crosbie Holdings, owners of the Irish Examiner.