I went to a concert in the new O2 recently. I will admit that the sound was fabulous, but I was a bit disappointed with the new layout. The place is more like a football stadium than a concert venue now. There is a lot of concrete and blue lighting. The place is quite clinical. I did not have any inclination to hang around and chat in the bar area. When we got to our seats, things were a lot more positive. We had a fabulous view of the stage and the accoustics were amazing. From looking around at the crowd during the concert, everyone was really enjoying themselves. I'll go back for the music but will have my pre concert drink somewhere else.

Brilliant venue, that makes you proud to have one like it in Ireland. Brings out the best in the Irish crowds too. Have seen 3 concert there and all were fantastic. I have been in both the standing and sitting section and they certainly achieved their goal that everyone has the perfect view and perfect hearing of the concert.

Not a great selection of drink and recently you have to be 21 to drink which is ridiculous. They don't let you up to the bar unless you're 21 yet the people selling bottles roaming the floor sell to you without ID!

All in all a million times better than the toilet of the point!

Have been here three times in recent week and found it to be a big improvement over its previous incarnation as The Point. The new layout makes much use of the venue space, doing away with the big lobby and food/drink areas to extend the arena and move all of these inside the same space. Even on the nights when the shows were sold out, you still didn't have to wait too long to get to the bar. The variety of beers isn't great, but they do have some options and seem to stock most mainstream spirits.

Haven't been in the seating areas, but from what I can tell the seats should be fine, with none of them appearing to be anywhere near as far from the stage as they were in The Point.

I did notice that the sound is much improved but that this varied with the different bands - this is always going to be the case though, so no fault with the venue.

Well worth a visit if you haven't been.