Waterfront Concerts

Reviews 3

KE

Kevin Miller

I did not want to take this to Google reviews but i feel like something has to be said... To warn other concert goers of the lack of safety in place at the Bangor venue. I attended the event "Tool" in Bangor. I have been to around 20 or so shows at the the waterfront in Bangor and Portland pier events. I have been attending shows for 17 years including many hard rock shows. (Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Biohazard, Rise Above) We purchased tickets in section 1 row 2 seats 1-4. Enjoyed the company of the 2 people infront of us and the row of people behind us and thought the seats were great. Until Tool took the stage. At that point we were bombarded by hundreds of ticket holders that were from the lawn. I paid over $100 each for my tickets and people were bragging on how they had lawn seats and only paid $50. Your security had ZERO crowd control. The only one of them that put in an actual effort was Harlan. Which we thanked many times. I used to work with him years ago. Thats the only way I knew his name. All of your other "security gaurds" refused to give me their name when asked politely or their supervisors name... No, sorry I take that back they told me they worked for "Rumplestilsken" Hands down the worst concert experience Ive ever had. I could understand if this was opening night for the first time ever. You are experienced youve been open for many years. If I wanted to get mobbed and near trampled I would of paid for lawn seats. Your police officers said it was "not their job" to clear completely packed alley ways. Your alley way security simply said "what do you want me to do about it theres 14,000 people here". I suggested they work together on a solution and move these people out of here due to it being a major safety hazard. But they sure did a great job when it comes to making sure there were no pictures taken for the first few songs. No selfies no pictures with the crowd no NOTHING. Then after that, phones were out the rest of the night and videos were being taken along with photos which you can view on you tube right now. Your beer tent servers were over serving highly intoxicated stumbling people. Very disappointed in the way the crowd was handled. When asked for a supervisor I was told "theyre the guys with the headsets". I asked for one to speak with and that took 5 minutes of asking many gaurds over and over again after being told to "leave me alone and go find them yourself" I asked "due to not being able to get to them can I climb over the baracade fence and find them myself"? I was then told of I did that Id be kicked out. I have tickets to many other shows this year and now dont trust the venue in Bangor with my safety what so ever. NEVER have I felt so unsafe in my life. Ive been knocked over with hundreds of people in a mosh pit at a biohazard concert in Massachusetts years ago and felt safer because everyone picked each other up from the floor immediately. Your employees seemed out numbered 200-1 and extremely under trained. We were never told about the "pit passes" for the first 2 rows. Which was an idea the day if I was told... I had a friend who had a seat in row 1 and paid $500/ ticket that couldnt even enjoy the show from his seat due to being pushed back by this sudden "pit pass" I got my pit wrist band which I gave to another person in my group. Absolutely made the entire Tool set miserable to deal with. Not only were you as a venue getting ripped off by these lack of respect ticket holders and "security gaurds" who were not doing what they were paid to do, but the band got ripped off and I feel ripped off as well. I was told its TOOL what do you expect. Id expect that to be a general admission show because it sure felt like one. Im not looking for something for nothing. I got an email reply that was very general in response... To the tune of yes we made some mistakes, but no response as requested as to HOW THEY WILL FIX THIS?! And as for no smoking? Cigarettes and weed EVERYWHERE. Completely disappointed with this venue, been coming here for years. Second guessing any future shows

JO

Joanne Luce

Ive attended two concerts since the new location was made. First one was Motley Crue/Hinder. I had row 9 seats (great view and reasonably priced) but the sound system was awefull!!!! The big base speaker up front drowned out ALL the other sounds. You literally sometimes could not tell what songs they were singing. Anyway I chalked it up to it being the first concert there and changes were going to be made to the sound in the future. Second concert was Van Halen last June. My seats were next to the platform for the disabled. I had seats in that area when the stage was in the old location and it wasnt too bad. Well, At the new stage they were aweful!!!! The seats appear to be so small they are likely a youth size chair and the rows are so close together that you realy dont want to have to get up to go to eat or the restrooms. When the concert started I could not see ANYTHING but the person standing in front of me. Never again will I spend to go to this venue. Prices are over the top and often the most expensive tickets up front are never sold and some lucky or "in the know" folks get these seats after the concert starts. There is no reason for this uncomfortable situation at $100.00 a ticket except for plain GREED. This is the worst venue unless you buy seats in the front 4 sections. Also, this place is swamped by the paid or volunteer concert police. You cant stand in a better place as they kick you out (but they do it). I would love to have the head of these concerts spend one concert sitting where you cant see or move! They absolutely MUST put the seating on a steeper grade and give some room between seat rows. Somehow other venues still make money. I went to a concert at Red Rocks CO. last June. Awesome. Three feet of walkway in front of your seat, reasonable prices, free parking, perfect sound, room to skake a leg and treated like humans, not cattle. Only go to Darlings if you have front section seats.

JA

Jason Stenger

Probably the worst managed venue I’ve gone to. Got to the concert an hour early, spent twenty-five minutes in line only to find out that it’s the line for assigned seat tickets only, with no possibility to get to the general admission lawn from that entrance. Then we get to the end of the GA line and spend about 45 minutes waiting in that line. The seat ticket entrance had numerous people scanning tickets, the GA entrance had two. Zero signage indicating the entrances were for different areas. There were a few people with signs saying “ask me questions” but they were hanging out just outside the gates, nowhere near then ends of the lines where they’d be useful, and were more interested in socializing with each other than telling people where to go. Once inside, the outhouse area wasn’t lit at all. The beer tent line was probably another twenty minutes long, because it was the only place to get a bracelet to buy alcohol from anywhere else. Everywhere else I’ve been they checked ID’s and gave out bracelets when they scanned your ticket. Only reason we didn’t miss the start of the show was that the headlining band didn’t start until 30 minutes after they were supposed to. To add insult to injury, because they haven’t implemented any anti-scalper measures (or possibly have a connection with the scalpers), GA tickets were being dumped last minute for $6, and assigned seats for as low as $10 by sites that bought up hundreds of them as soon as they went on sale.

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