Why are musicians touring Belfast but not Ireland, as Lionel Richie is set to perform this evening?

It’s set to be a busy weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland today - with the AVA Festival  currently underway, Lionel Richie will be gracing the stage at Ormeau Park as part of the Belsonic Festival 2023 and Seb Fontaine making his first appearance in the city alongside support from David Seaman (not the former England goalkeeper).

However, what could be a short haul over the border to Ireland to perform does not look like an option for the artists in question at the moment, and with many more musicians in the next few months also heading over to Belfast, including the likes of Adele during her tour, it starts to beg the question - why aren’t more musicians performing in Dublin or the hallowed Slane Castle, akin to Harry Styles later in the year?

Well, for all the riches in the world the artists seemingly make on the road through live receipts (ticket sales), it turns out that heading over the border to Ireland from Northern Ireland might be a little bit too rich even for their blood. During an interview earlier in the year on Newtalk’s ‘Lunchtime Live’ programme, presenter Andrea Gilligan posed the question to an industry insider - and the cost was the immediate answer.

“Even on the lower levels; underground acts would have to pay for venues or they’d have to pay 30% of their income on merch sales to the venue,” Rebecca from Waterford revealed. “Then again there’s getting all your equipment to Ireland; so, let’s say you’re doing a UK tour and then you have to get everything over to another island and you’re not guaranteed the sales. 

“You’ll get big names like Blur playing in Malahide Castle this summer - usually that would be a sold out tour by now and as far as I know there’s still tickets on sale. It’s really, really strange considering the names that are being brought [to] Ireland.” 

Those sentiments have also been echoed by Peter Aiken, a music promoter in Ireland. “To insure Rod Stewart at The Point [3Arena] when I did it in November [2022] cost me €10,000 – that is almost €1 per person but to insure it in Belfast was £215 – I don’t know what it is about the North – maybe they are just used to different things happening to them – nobody ever claims in the North for anything.”

“And the world is a much bigger place [in terms of venues] now than it was 20 years ago – you look at Saudi Arabia and Dubai as proper concert venues, they’ve built proper stadiums there – look at the World Cup and how fans were willing to travel to Qatar for that.”

So as much as people think that some musicians have an infinite pool of money to tour the world and play wherever they want to play (and naturally an audience), it turns out that those inflated insurance costs aren’t just something to complain about regarding your car - it’s now affecting the concert economy.