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Foo Fighters fans rush to buy tickets for surprise Dublin gig

Colm Scott-Byrne showing his ticket for Foo Fighters after lining up outside 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Picture date: Sunday February 22, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Bairbre Holmes/PA Wire
Colm Scott-Byrne showing his ticket for Foo Fighters after lining up outside 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Photo credit should read: Bairbre Holmes/PA Wire

There was a frantic scramble to Dublin city centre for Foo Fighters fans on Sunday after the band announced tickets to an intimate gig on Monday night.

A press release issued at 10am said tickets would go on sale at noon but would only be possible for purchase from the box office of Dame Street venue the 3Olmypia.

Monday night's gig will be held at The Academy on Middle Abbey Street, whose main room only has a capacity of 850.

Lifelong fan Colm Scott-Byrne said he was just "so happy" to secure his tickets, adding "I literally can’t even put it into words, I’m just so excited."

Michael Parker showing his ticket for Foo Fighters after lining up outside 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Picture date: Sunday February 22, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Bairbre Holmes/PA Wire
Michael Parker showing his ticket for Foo Fighters

He thinks Monday night will be the "25th or 26th" time seeing the band play live.

His wife saw the announcement on Instagram "one minute" after it was posted and he ordered a taxi from his home in Perrystown "straight away."

The tickets did not officially go on sale until noon, but the first few hundred people to arrive at the box office located in the 3Olympia Theatre were ushered inside the venue, before access was closed at around 11.15am.

Amy Malloy said: "We didn’t know what’s going on ’till about 10 minutes before they started selling the tickets and they told us we were all guaranteed ones."

At that point, she said, the crowd started to high-five each other.

The €99 tickets could only be bought by using a physical card and by those with physical ID on them.

Ms Malloy said she "got in and then I realised I brought the wrong bank card" before her boyfriend’s father was able to come to the rescue and deliver her purse.

A fan of the US rock band since the age of eight, Michael Parker said he "never experienced something like this."

"I thought this was only in the States, where they announce a gig at the very last second, and charge only pennies for it."

He said he did not believe the announcement when he first heard it

"I was very much expecting it to be a tribute band," he said.

"I’ve been telling everybody I was expecting the Food Fighters, not the Foo Fighters."

But there was deep disappointment for others, including Andrea Felix, who was in tears after arriving shortly after the queue was closed having run to the theatre.

Andrea Felix showing their tattoo of Foo Fighters in a line outside 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, to buy tickets to a surprise gig by the band. Picture date: Sunday February 22, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Bairbre Holmes/PA Wire
Andrea Felix showing their tattoo of Foo Fighters in a line outside 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, to buy tickets to a surprise gig by the band

A dedicated fan with the band’s logo tattooed on her neck, she had hoped to secure tickets for her birthday which is on Monday.

She was comforted by others waiting outside the venue.

Source: Press Association

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