One Direction fever hits Athlone

Tickets for One Direction’s Croke Park concert on May 24 next year will go on sale tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10am, but eager Athlone fans began to form a queue at Ticketmaster at the Crescent at 9am this morning!
Twenty-two year old Gemma White from Ashdale was first in the queue at 9am and is hoping to get her hands on two tickets for herself and her 14-year-old sister Evelyn. She said she thought the concert would be a sell-out so she decided to get down to Ticketmaster early to avoid disappointment.
Craig Milling, who has the Ticketmaster franchise at Gala, The Crescent, said he had expected large crowds to queue for tickets, but hadn’t expected people quite so early and at 10am he began to put up barriers as more and more One Direction fans settled in for a night in the queue to get their hands on the tickets, which are expected to sellout within an hour.
Some 80,000 tickets go on sale at 10am tomorrow and Craig explained that he doesn’t have an allocation and will be battling it out with Ticketmaster outlets nationwide so how many tickets he sells will come down to how quickly he can process and print them. He said he has been explaining this to people in the queue, who will be limited to four tickets per person, and said he expects there will be some disappointed people tomorrow as the tickets will sellout fast.
“I hope once it sells out that they’ll announce another date soon,” he said.
Conscious of security as the shop is located so close to the main road, Craig explained that they have erected barriers and will have security overnight. The Gala store will also open early tomorrow at 5am and he says he expects it to be frantic in the morning.