The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 December 2008. It was built on the site of the former Point Theatre, a smaller music venue which operated from 1988 to 2007, retaining only some of the outer facade. The Point Theatre was branded as "The Point Depot", in recognition of its original role as a railway goods handling station. The venue is owned by a Live Nation subsidiary, Apollo Leisure Group Ltd. The venue is among the top ten busiest music arenas by ticket sales in the world.

Notable/historic performances

U2 were the first band to play in the venue, when Bono and The Edge performed "Van Diemen's Land" and "Desire" to a private audience.

The first event to take place at the arena was the ChildLine Concert on 16 December 2008.

American pop star Lady Gaga performed 5 concerts at the venue on her Monster Ball Tour in 2010, becoming the first female act to sell out as many nights.

There was a controversial Guns N' Roses show in September 2010 during which the band had arrived a substantial amount of time late then had bottles hurled at them and stopped performing. Most of the audience then left the building in disgust, but the band later returned to finish the show. The band returned in 2012 and only achieved 47% capacity at the show.

Rammstein performed their first-ever show in Ireland at the arena on 27 February 2012 as part of their Made in Germany 1995-2011 Tour.

Since March 2014, the arena has hosted the C2C: Country to Country festival and is the second longest-running host venue after the O2 Arena in London.

In July 2014 UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Brandao took place at the arena. The event sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. It remains Conor McGregor's only UFC fight that took place in his hometown of Dublin.

U2 performed four homecoming concerts in November 2015, as part of their Innocence + Experience Tour. The full U2 stage setup could not be brought to the 3Arena due to the venue's configuration as an amphitheatre. The U2 stage was designed for a full indoor arena, but was reconfigured for the concerts in the 3Arena.

Since December 2015, the Arena has voluntarily hosted the RTÉ 2fm Xmas Ball, a yearly charity gig in aid of ISPCC. Over the years, headliners of the ball have included the likes of Kodaline, Hozier, Picture This and The Script.

Adele performed at the arena on 4 and 5 March 2016 during her world tour.

Britney Spears brought her Piece of Me Tour on 20 August 2018. Additionally, tickets for the show sold out within 10 minutes of its availability.

Demi Lovato performed at the arena on 25 May 2018 as part of their Tell Me You Love Me World Tour.

Twenty One Pilots performed at the 3Arena on 1 March 2019 during the European leg of The Bandito Tour. This was the duo's first Dublin show in nearly 5 years, the last being their headline show at The Academy in November 2014 during the Quiet is Violent Tour

On 22 May 2019, Mariah Carey took to the arena stage in her first-ever show in Ireland, as part of her Caution World Tour.

Christina Aguilera performed at the arena during her The X Tour (2019).

The 1975 have played the arena four times, having performed on 24 March 2016, as part of their I Like It When You Sleep Tour, on 10 January 2019 on the first leg of the UK and Ireland Music for Cars Tour, on 3 March 2020 on the last date of the second UK & Ireland leg of the Music for Cars Tour and on 29 January 2023 as part of the At Their Very Best Tour.

WWE has been a frequent visitor to the venue, having hosted multiple house shows there every year since 2009. At a SmackDown house show on 9 May 2019, Charlotte Flair and Dublin native Becky Lynch main evented the show in a match for the SmackDown Women's Championship, becoming the first women to ever main event a professional wrestling event at the arena. The arena was supposed to host NXT UK's fourth TakeOver event, NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin, on June 20, 2021. This was to be the first televised WWE event in Ireland. On 30 April, however, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A WWE Live house show is scheduled to take place on June 29, 2023. This will be the first WWE event to take place in Dublin since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Katie Taylor made her Irish professional debut at the arena on 20 May 2023 when she unsuccessfully challenged Chantelle Cameron for the undisputed super-lightweight championship. This was shown worldwide on DAZN.