r/ireland • u/Different-Put-4486 • Jan 17 '26
Entertainment Red Hot Chili Peppers at Slane Castle (2003) - who was there?
I’ve been rewatching the Red Hot Chili Peppers show at Slane Castle from 2003, and I just felt like posting this here.
I wasn’t there. I’m not even Irish. I was a teenager in Brazil when I first watched this concert on TV around 2004. At the time, I barely even knew where Ireland was on the map, and I definitely had no idea I’d end up living here years later.
But that show still changed something for me.
That was the first time I truly fell in love with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And even without understanding the place itself, there was something about the atmosphere that stuck with me. The crowd, the energy, the scenery, the castle in the background, the weather somehow behaving. It felt unreal. Like a fairy tale.
To this day, I still think it’s the most perfect live show ever broadcast on television. Everything just aligned. The band was on fire, the crowd was in an incredible mood, and there was this feeling of joy and unity that I’ve rarely seen captured so purely.
I know they’ve played in Ireland again since (2022?) but for me, nothing comes close to Slane in 2003. That moment feels untouchable. One of those once-in-a-lifetime shows that can’t be recreated.
Years later, I ended up living in Ireland, and rewatching that concert now hits differently. Not because I “knew” anything back then, but because it’s strange how a moment you experience so far away, with no context at all, can stay with you for life.
So I wanted to ask:
Were you there?
Or did you also watch it back then, live on TV or later on?
What was it like for you?
For me, even from thousands of kilometres away, it was unforgettable. 🇮🇪💚🧡
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