By Katie Shadow

The Dublin city centre traffic almost stole the show on the opening night production of ‘MAMMA MIA!’ in the 3Arena on Wednesday, September 25. 

Since the musical’s last performance  in the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin, in 2019, its return has been welcomed with open arms – with all seven performances from September 25-29 selling out, and additional tickets being released for three dates, due to demand.  

The widely popular production has been seen by over 65 million people worldwide since its 1999 debut, and has grossed $4 billion, leaving it unsurprising that the demand for tickets was so high. 

The musical, set on the fictional Greek Island of Kalokairi, follows the story of a young bride trying to figure out who her father is, and the story, in the meantime has touched many people’s hearts and become a household staple all over the globe.  

Emma Byrne from Blessington, Co. Wicklow, who attended the opening night of the production, said that the performance from the cast was “captivating”. 

“I’ve been such a huge ‘Mamma Mia’ fan since I was a child – seeing the musical live felt like seeing it for the first time again, it was a great experience.”  

“There was a great sense of comfort as well – everyone was singing along,” Emma said. 

However, singing in the right key was not the only “quay” that ‘MAMMA MIA!’ fans had to worry about that night. 

The traffic plan that came into place on August 25, 2024, had an unforeseen knock-on effect on accessibility to the 3Arena for musical goers.  

The traffic plan introduced included blocking off vehicular traffic access along parts of the quays in Dublin city centre; restricting access from Bachelor’s Walk to Eden Quay from 7am to 7pm. 

This left the journey for eager fans a lot longer than anticipated, due to the volume of traffic, after the introduction of these changes – as they attempted to make it in time for the show’s 7:30pm start time. 

A woman attending the musical, who wished to remain anonymous, said her usual hour-long journey into the city centre from Kildare turned into a nightmare of 2 hours and 40 minutes to arrive at the 3Arena. 

“I’ve never experienced traffic like that in town – it’s never taken me as long to get in.” 

“At one point, it took us 12 minutes to get 1 kilometer closer, the cars were bumper to bumper,” she said, “I can understand wanting to promote walking and cycling in the city, but I don’t think it was thought through what would happen when there’s big events on and more traffic than usual,” the woman said. 

The woman said she eventually got seated in the 3arena at 7:45pm, where luckily, the production was yet to start.  

“People were still piling into the place even after we had gotten there – we assumed they might have actually pushed back the start time to accommodate the amount of people who were late because of the traffic, but it’s hard to know.” 

“Either way we were so glad it got delayed because it was well worth waiting in traffic for,” she said. 

While there are no upcoming ‘MAMMA MIA!’ tour dates for Ireland in 2025, the 3Arena is jam packed with events into the new year, which we can only hope is not affected by the new city centre traffic regulations, in the future.