MCD Productions

MCD Productions is an Irish music, comedy, and theatre event promoter, listed as a limited company in Ireland, with a registered company address at 7 Park Road, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin.

Events

MCD is the promoter of the largest music festival in Ireland, Oxegen, previously known as Witnness. Their Slane Castle events are also well known in Ireland and worldwide, having featured such acts as The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers in recent years. In the nineties, they ran the now defunct Féile Festival. MCD also promote the Bud Rising and Heineken Green Energy Festival events with sponsorship from Budweiser and Heineken respectively. In recent years they have been behind Lovebox Dublin and Ireland's first surf music festival Cois Fharraige. Activities are mainly concentrated in the Dublin area; however, they are involved in concerts and events around Ireland.

Ownership

MCD Productions Limited owns 49.9% of Festival Republic (the other 50.1% is owned by Live Nation), organiser of the Reading and Leeds Festivals and The Glastonbury Festival in the UK. MCD’s parent company, Gaiety Investments, is owned by Dennis Desmond - the firm is also a registered limited company in Ireland. Gaiety controls 67% of DF Concerts, 67% of T in the Park, 33% of V Festival and 35% of the Isle of Wight Festival, along with 12.5% of the Academy Music Group [http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Mergers+EA02/Decisions/Clearances+and+referrals/Mean+Fiddler.htm] . In Ireland, Gaiety is a backer in Dublin rock radio station, Phantom FM.

Controversies

Oxegen 2006

The firm are currently involved in a legal dispute with a small Irish company, boards.ie ltd, over claims users on boards.ie had made about the camp site at Oxegen 2006. Users' claims include alleged random violence and widespread tent burning at the event campsite A, claims that MCD deny, despite video evidence supporting claims. Campsite A was renamed the Red Campsite from Oxegen 2007 onwards.

To this very day a sticky thread remains at the top of every discussion forum on boards.ie warning members not to create posts mentioning MCD or any events hosted by MCD [ [http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054977363 Do NOT reference any MCD event or venue] ]

Barbra Streisand, 2007

MCD's July 2007 Barbra Streisand concert in Celbridge, County Kildare was marred by appalling organisation and poor traffic management, with many fans missing the entire first half. All cars entering the parking area needed to enter on one one-lane makeshift roadway, thereby causing a massive traffic backup that existed for several hours before the scheduled start of the concert. The bumper-to-bumper traffic ran all the way to Dublin, a distance of over 20 kilometers. Others reported [RTÉ Radio 1, July 15, 2007] that no stewards were present to lead concert-goers to their seats and when they found their seats they were already occupied. In addition, entire sections of seat locations did not exist at all due to another snafu by the organisers. Ticketholders who arrived with tickets for seats that did not exist were directed to a long line of patrons who needed their tickets "reissued." Further reports suggested that people with low-value tickets were able to occupy high value seats unchallenged. Demands were made for refunds. MCD were unavailable for comment.

References

External links

* [http://www.mcd.ie/home/ Official MCD site]
* [http://www.independent.ie/national-news/streisand-fiasco-promoter-lashed-1062974.html]