HUNDREDS OF music fans have complained about the quality of acoustics at the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin following two Michael Bublé concerts there at the weekend.
Concert goers claim they could not hear what Bublé was singing or saying and others complained about echoes coming off the roof of the stadium which was hosting its first concert.
The problems were most prevalent in the upper tiers of the West and East Stands while those on lower tiers and on the pitch enjoying good sound quality.
RTÉ newsreader and radio presenter Eileen Dunne, who was seated in the East Stand Upper, said the quality of sound was “muffled”.
“It was okay for the songs because we all know all the words, but he is so engaging telling stories and everybody around me was asking what was he talking about because we couldn’t hear. We missed half his punchlines.”
Sandra Greene Keogh, who was also in the East Stand Upper, said hundreds of people left her row by the end of the concert.
“We could not understand a word he said. It was not his fault. The sound engineers who worked on the Aviva have obviously not modelled the effect of the roof. About 30 per cent of people in our block left well before the end. They won’t get half the crowd back again.”
A spokesman for the Aviva Stadium said the sound was the responsibility of the artist and the stadium was built to the highest specifications to host concerts.
A spokesman for concert promoters MCD said they received 150 complaints and all those who complained were re-seated or offered tickets for the Saturday night. He said 94,700 fans had attended on both nights and the number of fans who complained were a “tiny fraction” of the overall audience. What happened at the concert was just “teething problems”, he added.
