FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL has said its Swords Castle Concerts will “proceed as planned” despite the appointed ticketing provider, Tickets.ie, facing liquidation.
Tickets.ie was founded in 2004 and handled ticketing for thousands of music, arts, comedy, educational, family and sporting events annually.

However, it has ceased trading and is set to enter liquidation.

According to a statement on the Tickets.ie website, the company directors are “taking steps to place the company into liquidation and appoint a liquidator over the company”.

“All enquiries should be directed to the appointed liquidator whose details will be published here once appointed,” the statement continued.

It advised that customers with tickets for upcoming events “should wait to hear from the relevant event promoter directly regarding their event”.

Fingal County Council hosts Swords Castle concerts and two concerts are planned for Friday 24 July and Saturday 25 July.

The Friday show will feature Nathan Carter as the headliner, while Embrace is the headline act on Saturday.

However, Tickets.ie was the appointed ticketing provider and a message on the Fingal events webpage reads that “ticket sales for Swords Castle Concerts are temporarily paused”.

In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council said that sales were “temporarily paused while the Council completes a review of matters relating to the appointed ticketing provider and explores alternative ticketing arrangements”.

The spokesperson added that existing ticket holders are unaffected and do not need to take any actions.

The Council said a further update on ticket sales “will be issued shortly as preparations continue to ensure another successful event”.

In 2022, German live-entertainment group DEAG acquired a majority stake in Tickets.ie

The Journal has contacted German company DEAG but has not received any comment from them.

Meanwhile, the organiser of a country music festival in Co Leitrim told The Journal on Wednesday that the festival could lose up to €135,000 due to Tickets.ie entering liquidation.

The Cowboys and Heroes festival took place this year in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim over the June bank holiday weekend.

Simon Power said he had been frustrated by a “lack of answers” and that he has tried to contact the company multiple times but to no avail.

Power said he has dealt with Tickets.ie for a number of years and previously had a good working relationship with it.

“We’re in total limbo, and it really jeopardises the whole event, which is a huge boost for the local economy and local tourism,” said Power.

“We’ve been running it for 14 years, so it’s incredibly disappointing, and we’re really not sure where we’re going to go with it.

“We just don’t know what is going to be recoverable, that’s the problem.”