How gig tickets work in Ireland: “from” prices, booking fees, sell-outs, resale and the door

Most ticketed gigs in Ireland are sold through one of a handful of channels. The large national platform handles nearly every arena, theatre and mid-size venue show, and it is where the big on-sales happen on Friday mornings. Smaller venues and independent promoters tend to use self-service platforms such as Eventbrite, or sell directly through their own website. Concert halls and theatres usually have their own box office, online and in person, alongside a listing on a platform. Pub gigs, when ticketed at all, are often paid on the door or through a simple link the venue posts on social media.

LocalJams never sells tickets. Every listing links to the official ticket page where one exists, and the price we show is taken from that page or from the venue’s own listing. The venue or promoter is always the source of truth for the final price and availability; if our listing and the ticket page disagree, trust the ticket page and tell us so we can fix it.

When a listing says a gig is “from €35”, that is the cheapest ticket tier at the time we last checked, before fees. For a standing show in a club there may only be one tier, and “from” is close to what you will pay. For a seated theatre or an arena, the “from” price is usually the furthest or most restricted seat, and the ones most people actually buy are a tier or two above it. If the cheap tier sells out, the “from” price on the ticket page goes up, and ours will follow on the next nightly update.

On LocalJams the price is shown as a starting point so you can compare shows at a glance and filter by budget on Explore. It is not a quote. Our listings policy explains how prices are gathered and how often they refresh.

Nearly every platform adds a per-ticket fee on top of the face value, and many add a separate per-order processing or delivery fee as well. The combined effect can be noticeable on a cheap ticket and significant on a family of four. Fees are usually shown late in the checkout, so a ticket that looked like €35 may be €40 or more by the time you pay. Some platforms now show an all-in price up front on the first screen; most still do not.

Ways to pay less: buy at the venue box office in person, where there is often no booking fee; buy directly from the venue’s own site rather than a platform where both options exist; and choose e-tickets over posted ones to avoid the delivery charge. For pub and small-venue gigs, paying on the door is often cheaper than paying online for the same show.

Big shows go on sale at a set time, typically a weekday morning, and the first minutes decide who gets the good seats. Presales happen a day or two earlier for people on an artist’s mailing list, a venue’s membership scheme, or a particular bank or phone network’s customer programme; a large share of the best tickets can go in presale, so if you care about a show, sign up for the artist’s list the moment a tour is announced. Platform queues work on a virtual-waiting-room model: you join before the on-sale time, you are assigned a random place, and you wait. Refreshing does not help and can put you to the back.

Second and third dates get added when a first night sells out quickly, usually announced within hours. If you missed the first on-sale, hold off on resale for a day and see whether an extra date appears.

“Sold out” on a platform means the platform’s allocation is gone. It does not always mean every ticket is gone. Promoters hold back tickets for production reasons and release them in the days before a show once the stage layout is final; this is where the “production holds” and “additional tickets released” notices come from. Venues sometimes keep a small box-office allocation. Resale platforms, discussed below, show returned tickets. And for standing shows at club venues, a modest number of door tickets are sometimes held back, although you cannot rely on it.

Practical advice: check the official ticket page again two or three days before the show and on the day itself, follow the venue on social media for release notices, and, for a show you badly want to see, turn up early with cash and a willingness to be disappointed.

This is where the two jurisdictions differ. In the Republic of Ireland, legislation passed in 2021 made it an offence to resell tickets above face value (plus limited expenses) for events in designated venues and for designated events, and it bans the use of bot software to buy tickets. In practice that means a legitimate resale market for Irish shows runs at or below face value, through the official resale functions on the main platforms and through fan-to-fan resale sites that cap prices. If someone is offering you a ticket for a big Dublin show at twice face value, they are almost certainly breaking the law, and you have no protection if the ticket is cancelled.

In Northern Ireland, UK consumer law applies, and at the time of writing there is no equivalent price cap, although the UK government has been consulting on one. Secondary platforms there can and do list tickets well above face value. Our advice for both jurisdictions is the same: use the official platform’s resale function or a fan-to-fan site first, never pay by bank transfer to a stranger, and treat any listing on a general marketplace as a probable scam.

Also check the terms. Many Irish shows, especially arena ones, are now issued as mobile tickets tied to the buyer’s account, and a ticket transferred outside the official system may be cancelled at the door.

For most pub gigs, trad concerts in small rooms, and many club-venue shows that have not sold out, you can simply turn up and pay at the door. Door prices are commonly a little above the advance price, and some venues are cash-only at the door even if they take cards at the bar. Listings on LocalJams that say “tickets at the door” or show no advance price are usually in this category. Where we have evidence that a gig is free, we flag it; where we do not, we do not guess, so an absent price does not mean it is free.

“Doors” on a listing is the time the venue opens, not the time the music starts. At a club venue, the headliner can be an hour or two after doors, with a support act in between. At a seated venue, the show usually starts within fifteen minutes of the advertised time and latecomers wait outside for a break.

• Sign up for the artist’s mailing list when a tour is announced; presale is where the good tickets go.
• Treat the “from” price as the floor, and add fees to get the real total.
• Try the box office or the venue’s own site before a platform.
• If a show sells out, wait a day for an extra date, then check back before the show for releases.
• Resell and buy resale only through official or capped fan-to-fan channels. In the Republic, above-face-value resale is illegal for designated events.
• Read “doors” as opening time, not stage time.

Prices in our listings are updated every night, and the ticket link on every gig page takes you to the official seller. Browse by budget on Explore, or see where the music is free in our free live music guide.