Minister designates Garth Brooks 2027 concerts in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has designated four Garth Brooks stadium concerts scheduled for 2027 in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Limerick under section 9(6)(a) of the Sale of Tickets (Cultural, Entertainment, Recreational and Sporting Events) Act 2021. The designation was published in Iris Oifigiúil No. 90 of 10 November 2026, at reference [C-4]. It came into effect on Friday 6 November 2026, four days before the notice appeared in print.

The notice was issued by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and consists of a single ministerial designation listing each event with its venue and performance dates, followed by a line fixing the date on which the designation takes effect. It does not set out ticket prices, capacity or allocation arrangements; it is the formal instrument that brings the named performances inside the scope of the 2021 Act, which governs the sale of tickets for cultural, entertainment, recreational and sporting events.

Four shows, four counties

The designated events, as listed in the notice, are:

• Garth Brooks in Cork, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 18–19 June 2027.
• Garth Brooks in Galway, Pearse Stadium, 29–30 May 2027.
• Garth Brooks in Kilkenny, Nowlan Park, 04–05 June 2027.
• Garth Brooks in Limerick, Gaelic Grounds, 11–12 June 2027.

All four are two-night stands at GAA grounds, running from late May to mid-June 2027, with Galway opening the sequence and Cork closing it. Each venue and each pair of dates is designated individually, so the notice names eight separate performances across the four counties.

The statutory route used

The instrument relies on section 9(6)(a) of the 2021 Act, the provision under which the Minister designates specific events for the purposes of the legislation. Designation is event-specific: the notice attaches to the named performances at the named venues on the named dates, rather than to the artist’s tour as a whole or to the venues in general.

The commencement line states that “designation for the above event comes into effect on Friday 6 November 2026”, which means the instrument was made and took effect before the issue of Iris Oifigiúil carrying it went to press. The notice carries no ministerial signature block in the published text and does not name the individual holding the enterprise portfolio.

A series now running into 2027

The Garth Brooks notice follows a run of similar designations published through the autumn. Earlier notices in the same series, carried in Iris Oifigiúil in September 2026, designated:

• Electric Picnic, Stradbally Hall, Co. Laois, 27–29 August 2027.
• Fontaines D.C. at Slane, 26–27 June 2027.

Read together, the sequence shows the designation power being applied well ahead of the 2027 season rather than close to the events themselves — in this case more than seven months before the first Galway date.

What it means for promoters and fans

For the promoter and for anyone buying or reselling a ticket, the practical consequence is that these eight performances now sit inside the statutory ticketing framework rather than outside it, and the designation is already live: it was triggered on 6 November, not on publication. Fans planning to travel to Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick or Cork, and secondary sellers who had been treating the 2027 dates as ordinary concert inventory, are now dealing with designated events. The notice also confirms the geographic spread of the tour — four counties, four GAA grounds, eight nights — as a matter of official record rather than promoter announcement.

Source: Iris Oifigiúil, No. 90, 10 November 2026, section I, p. C-4 (official reference: [C-4]).