Watchdogs Disagree On Streisand Settlement

An independent Irish consumer organisation has criticised the settlement MCD is offering fans over this summer’s rain-afflicted Barbra Streisand shows at Castletown House in Ireland, but the official government watchdog is happy about the way the issue has been resolved.

Dermot Jewell, chief exec for the Consumers’ Association of Ireland Ltd. (CSI), an independent, non-profit and non-government organisation, says the amount being offered to fans is poor and inadequate.

But the National Consumers Agency (NCA), the government watchdog, looks to have accepted the September 27 report on the incident published by the Castletown Concert Committee, the independent review body MCD set up as soon as the complaints started.

Five weeks of constant rain before the concert meant that some car parking areas had to be switched due to soggy ground, while the heavy storms 24 hours before the concert had washed the numbers off many of the seats and made it difficult to replace them in pouring rain.

MCD chief Denis Desmond said he regrets the difficulty fans had to endure but is pleased that the matter has reached a satisfactory conclusion.

"I’ve seen the criticism from the CSI and expected it because it’s a self-appointed consumer organisation that complains about everything. I’d be much more concerned if it was coming from the NCA, but the NCA is very happy with the report," he told Pollstar.

The Castletown report recommends that about 200 people who did not get seats will be offered full refunds, 561 who ended up with cheaper seats than they booked will be paid the difference, 383 people who had car parking problems, blocked views and other issues will get a euro 100 (£70) voucher for an MCD event.

It was carried out in close association with the NCA and looked at the 1,364 complaints received within 30 days of the July 14 show.

The majority (761 complaints) were about seating, with people complaining that they either bought seats that didn’t exist, their seats were already occupied or they didn’t get the seats they’d paid for.

Most of the remaining complaints concerned car parking, particularly the ground conditions, trying to locate cars post-concert, and the lack of stewards and stewarding while the crowd was trying to leave at the end.

The report was put together by former police commissioner Pat Byrne, health and safety officer Michael Slattery, special Olympics World Games communications consultant Julian Davis, Desmond and other key MCD staff including publicist Justin Green.

It said some of the conclusions might not "make for easy reading for MCD," but it was also critical of some of the fans’ behaviour.

"There were instances where patrons refused point-blank to vacate seats not allocated to them when asked to do so by ushers and security, even so much so that some even refused when members of the Garda Síochána [the police] were called," the report says.