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The cheapest ticket to see Oasis at Slane next year is a whopping 18 times the price of the venue’s first concert in 1981 – in contrast to general inflation, which has seen other goods and services quadruple in price.
And the band has been accused of ripping off its Irish fans, with their Slane tickets costing double the price of Fontaines D.C.’s concerts at the same venue next year.
Some fans have asked why tickets for Oasis – who speak proudly of their working-class roots and Irish bloodline in their recently-released documentary – cost twice those of one of the biggest bands in Europe right now, Fontaines D.C, who play Slane two months earlier.
The Gallagher brothers confirmed this week they will return to the castle for two gigs as part of a series of concerts booked for 2027, following the runaway success of their comeback tour last year.
This time, the band dropped the controversial ‘dynamic pricing’ model of their comeback shows, which saw desperate fans pay hundreds of euro above face price at the point of sale due to demand.
Most fans will not pay as much this time, but many have been left dismayed again by the base price to see Oasis in Slane. A general admission ticket for their two September shows at the legendary venue costs €181.25, plus a Ticketmaster service charge of up to €10.50 per ticket.
A front standing ticket – the part of the venue once occupied by fans who showed up earliest but now reserved for those who can fork out more – costs €211.25, plus the service charge.
Coach return packages from various cities around Ireland cost between €226.25 and €276.25, while VIP and reserved seating packages are available between €365.98 and €590.43, again with the extra charge on each ticket.
Analysis of the price of Slane tickets since the concerts began in 1981 shows that, as with other big music events, they have multiplied in price at a rate much greater than the general rate of inflation.
The Central Statistics Office says a basket of groceries that cost €10 (adjusted from punt) in August 1981, when Thin Lizzy rocked the Co. Meath town, would cost €37.95 in August 2026. This is a 279.5 per cent increase, or just under four times the price.
A young Bono as U2 played slane in 1981 - as one of Thin Lizzy's support acts
By contrast, the price of a ticket for the first Slane concert cost £8.00, or around €10.16. The jump from that price to the cheapest Oasis ticket before the service charge is 1,684 per cent – almost 18 times the price.
Big concerts have far outstripped general inflation for a number of reasons, including production levels going up massively, and artists becoming more reliant on live income with the decline of physical music sales.
Madonna performing at Slane Castle in August 2004
Irish fans have pointed out that the cheapest tickets for their Slane shows – along with the equally iconic Knebworth venue in England – cost double the cheapest tickets to many of the other dates on their 38-show tour.
Comparing the front standing tickets across the venues shows that fans are paying around the same for that experience.
Interestingly, the band’s previous appearance at Slane a couple of months before they broke up in 2009 represents the biggest ever drop in price from one concert to the next.
That gig cost exactly €10 less than the Rolling Stones two years earlier, who had brought the price of Madonna’s concert two years before that down by a couple of euro.
Noel Gallagher pose for the press outside Slane Castle, after it was announced that Oasis would be playing there in June 2009 - it would be one of their last gigs before their breakup
Madonna’s inflated ticket price – 48.7 per cent more than the Red Hot Chili Peppers – is only topped by Oasis this year, whose tickets are 49.5 per cent pricier than Luke Combs, and by the Rolling Stones in the second ever Slane concert.
That gig cost £12, 50 per cent more than Thin Lizzy’s £8 the previous year.
Asked if Oasis are ripping off their fans, an experienced concert promoter who did not wish to be named told the MoS: ‘I would say they’re making hay.’
‘It does seem expensive, but I guess that’s [because of] globalisation, Ticketmaster, and all the rest.’
Asked about the disparity in price for next year’s two Slane weekends, the source continued that Oasis ‘just know they have the leverage, really’.
‘They’ve built up a vacuum of demand by not being on the road for 15 years, while Fontaines are on that meteoric rise, so they’re young and they’re up for touring.
‘But obviously, Oasis will do it if it suits them, in their older age.’
On the massive leap in Slane ticket prices over the past 45 years, the source pointed out that the ‘user experience’ has greatly improved in that time.
Liam Gallagher as Oasis took to the stage in Cardiff for their long-awaited 2025 reunion tour
Noel Gallagher at Cardiff last summer
‘The first concerts in Slane, [the acts] probably brought a cloth backdrop or something like that.
A ticket to Thin Lizzy back in 1981 cost £8 - or a tenner if you bought one 'on the day'
‘Whereas now they’re bringing LED screens and ego ramps and lighting and fireworks, and I guess that’s where the costs are.
‘Health and safety, security, paramedics, viewing platforms for people with disabilities, sign language people signing the lyrics for people with hearing issues…
‘There is a better user experience now than there was, and a more inclusive experience for everyone, that wasn’t maybe a high priority in the 80s or the 90s.
David Bowie played Slane Castle in 1987
Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who played Slane in 2003 (and in 2001 as support act to U2)
‘People were sleeping on bus shelters at Féile, now there’s boutique campsites with running water.’
Another industry source, who worked with the triple-Grammy nominated Fontaines D.C. during their rise, said the Irish band ‘would have made efforts straight away to instruct their tickets not to become too expensive’.
‘I know that their agents are that kind of agency, so they think about fans first and they don’t want to rip people off.
‘Even the way they did the lineup [to support them in] Slane, they couldn’t have done more for the next generation of Irish music.
‘They could still make money, but there’s a difference between making money and cashing in.’
The source also said it would be ‘naive’ to assume artists alone decide how much their tickets cost – though it is hard to imagine the Gallaghers not having a say.
Slane Castle’s owner Alex Conyngham told the MoS last month that the two concerts in one weekend format, debuted with Luke Combs this year, would likely be the way forward for the venue to remain competitive with stadiums, as it costs more to stage a huge gig in a rural location.
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