Galway hotel issues apology over Garth Brooks gig weekend booking error
If you have booked a hotel for the Garth Brooks gig weekend in Galway you may need to double check it is still there
Much like Garth Brooks’ famous song, some Pearse Stadium concert revellers will have Unanswered Prayers this morning after finding out that their booked accommodation for when the US Country Singer comes to town is no longer there.
That’s because one Galway hotel has issued an apology after a system error meant they overbooked their 92-room accommodation leaving some Garth-goers no longer with a Brook-ing.
Over 60,000 fans will Thunder Roll into Galway city and more specifically Salthill across May 29 and 30 with the record-breaking musician promising Galwegians they won’t forget That Summer of 2027.
The sure-to-sell-out-gigs went on sale Thursday morning at 8am with prices between €144.20–€164.20 a pop for the double Grammy-award winner alongside the usual ticket queue frenzy as some were pushed back as far as 20,000 in the queue for the Pearse Stadium nights.
But 12 hours previous Clybaun Hotel, which is just a ten minute drive from Pearse Stadium confirmed “that due to an automated synchronisation failure between our internal property management software and third-party global distribution channel managers, our reservations system accepted bookings substantially beyond our physical capacity for the weekend of May 29 and 30 2027”.
“We unreservedly apologise to every customer affected.”
Clybaun Hotel said they contacted all affected customers in advance of the concert tickets going on general sale on Thursday morning “to ensure they have immediate notice to explore alternative accommodation”.
They continued: “We advise all customers who have made a reservation at the hotel for the dates May 29 and 30 2027 to check the email attached to their reservation for any updates.
“Valid reservations are being honoured strictly on a chronological timestamped basis. Customers whose bookings cannot be accommodated have the option of cancelling or joining an automated waitlist should rooms become available.”
They finished the statement by saying: “This was an isolated technical breakdown that is currently under formal investigation with our third-party software providers.”
The Friends in Low Places crooner will play ten nights across Ireland with Pearse Stadium nestled between Boucher Road, Belfast on 21 and 22 May and UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny on 4 and 5 June.
Those gigs come before TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick on 11 and 12 June and SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork on 18 and 19 June.
Brooks sold out multiple shows at Croke Park in 2022 playing to 400,000 fans after previously cancelling concerts at the venue in 2014.
It is not the first time Pearse Stadium has hosted a music concert, with Ed Sheeran playing back-to-back sell out nights on the pitch in May 2018.
Black Eyed Peas played in 2022 and people of a certain age will remember the wonderful washout Westlife concert in 2008.
James Gavin of event management company Grooveyard managed to persuade the Black Eyed Peas – the US group behind ‘I Gotta Feeling’, which spent twelve weeks at Number 1 in Ireland – to play their only Irish gig after eleven years in Pearse Stadium.
Back in 2019, County Galway GAA Treasurer at the time Michael Burke said after the Ed Sheeran gig that there would be no concert in Pearse “unless there is a good payday for the GAA”.
In all, Galway GAA received a modest €119,085 return from the two Ed Sheeran concerts in May – although a portion of this included the installation of a new CCTV system, which was understood to be a requirement for the Ed Sheeran gigs.
By contrast, Cork County Board reportedly received in the region of €1 million from the Sheeran concerts in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.