Madonna’s fee to push Slane ticket prices over 100
Madonna fans face ticket prices of more than 
100 for her Slane concert this August to pay for an extraordinary 4.2m one-off deal.
The 45-year-old Material Girl lived up to her name – she has hammered out a no-lose megabuck deal. She gets the lump sum or 98.5pc of the net profit – whichever is the greater. Either way that works out at around 2m an hour for the controversial singer. And, according to well placed sources, it will push prices above the 100 mark.
That would be well above what the Rolling Stones charged (90) for their concert in the Point last year.
Details of the Madonna deal were discovered as an official planning application for the star’s first concert in Ireland was being lodged with Meath County Council.
The local authority confirmed last night that an application for the controversial Slane concert had been received late yesterday.
This means that Madonna will, if and when planning permission is granted, become the first female singer to headline at Slane.
The application confirmed that the date requested by promoters MCD was Sunday, August 29 which is likely to cause some objections from Slane villagers.
Objections, however, will have to be lodged in the next few weeks as the local authority said it would be making a decision on the application before June 8.
The application says it will only open gates at 2pm instead of the usual 12 noon to allow for concerns from locals about being able to get to Mass that morning.
The concert will run no later than 10.30pm, the application said. It also includes a draft management plan for the event. It further added that a letter from Slane Castle owner Lord Henry Mount Charles would follow later giving his consent.
MCD’s Justin Green last night confirmed that it had applied for the staging of the event to Meath County Council for August 29.
“Details regarding the event, including the artist line-up and ticket prices will be announced shortly,” he said.
Since Lord Henry Mount Charles’ unofficial announcement last week, Ticketmaster has received 200,000 calls to its phonelines and hits to its website about the concert. Some 60pc of its calls are in connection with the gig.
Madonna will play the concert as part of her re-Invention tour and is only to play three European locations – Paris, London and Slane.
She sold out 150,000 tickets in the UK for her eight London concerts in five minutes and sold out six shows at Madison Square Gardens in New York within minutes.
It is widely believed that this will be her last tour, a factor likely to help record sales.
But it will be at a hefty price.
Lord Henry Mount Charles doesn’t yet know the admission price and the promoters, MCD, have yet to decide.
But sources say they must top 100 to meet the massive Madonna appearance fee.
The cost of a ticket is tied to the price of the artist.
Charging 100 at the door would leave the promoters little chance of making a profit from the 8m gross when their expenses are added to Madonna’s fee.
One showbiz insider said a sell-out of 80,000 tickets at 140 would leave Madonna, MCD and Lord Henry Mount Charles with a good night’s wages.
Local parish priest, Fr Joe Deegan, said the holding of the concert on a Sunday was “a bit inconsiderate and insensitive” and that “our religious beliefs were not taken into account”.
From an article by Sam Smyth and
Martha Kearns, Irish Independent