MTV gig in Cork could be watched by 1bn viewers

The MTV Crashes Cork gig could be seen by up to 1bn people providing one of the city’s biggest tourism opportunities in a decade.

The news emerged as MTV bosses visited City Hall before the weekend to conduct a technical review of the building’s historic concert hall, which will host the gig in late November or early December.

They remained tight-lipped on which global music stars might headline the event.

A shortlist of artists has been drawn up — an announcement is expected next month — but they promised “tier-one global superstars”.

Previous Crashes destinations have included Belfast, Glasgow, Plymouth, and Manchester featuring artists such as P Diddy and Alicia Keys.

The Cork gig, which will be recorded for broadcast across the MTV network’s flagship UK music channels, MTV Music and MTV Live HD, and subsequently across its portfolio of music channels, will be screened initially in up to 40 countries to around 161m viewers.

However, with re-runs — recent MTV Crash gigs have been re-run up to 90 times across the network — the total global viewership of the Cork event could top 1bn.

About 800 tickets to the exclusive event, to which Hollywood A-listers will be invited, will be released via a website lottery and through competitions closer to the gig date.

Hoteliers and publicans are gearing up for a bumper weekend following confirmation that the city council will stage a three-day city-wide music trail in the run up to the gig.

It is believed the entire event could generate up to €10m for the local economy and be worth millions more in tourism spin-off.

Kerry Taylor, the senior vice-president and general manager of MTV UK, said Ireland has an amazing musical heritage, and Cork, as its second largest city, is a perfect destination for MTV to ‘crash’.

“We’re really looking forward to working with the local partners to stage a fantastic live music event as well as showcasing what the city has to offer to our youth audience,” said Ms Taylor.

Head of the city’s tourism unit, Damian O’Mahony, said the gig will give the city a flavour of what it can expect when the events and conference centre is built.