Blossom Music Center

Reviews 3

JO

Joe Immler

The review you give Blossom Music Center depends more than anything on the act playing when you go. Its a nice place to see a show, with a good acoustic design and spacious facility that gives everyone room to move around without being crushed in a city basement. The main complaints about Blossom are the traffic, the distance from your car to the venue, insufficient volume, and the prices. Bring up a map of the surrounding roads and plot out at least two routes in and out of the parking lot. After the show they route all the roads outbound, so its good to have a plan B and C in case you are not funneled into the road you wanted or you find its now one-way. The lot workers get you in to park pretty quickly but its left up to the drivers when leaving, as the workers only keep people from going the wrong way up a road - they dont manage the various choke points. If everyone lets one person go first, alternating like a zipper, everyone will get out quickly. Theres not much to do about the walk from your car and back unless you spring for the VIP parking lot. This is done when you buy the tickets, so think about whether $12-20 is worth your time and feet, people are not exaggerating that much when they say its a mile, especially from the farther parking spots. If you want to roll up to a show ten minutes before curtain and sit right down they are going to charge you for the privilege. The venue does not let you tailgate with a grill or tent, but they wont say anything if you just pop your trunk and have a few cans and some sandwiches. Its a bit ridiculous in the Internet age, but you need to call their phone number and listen to the recording to see whats allowed. Sometimes you can bring in food, other times nothing but a blanket. The concessions are expensive, more so than at sporting events. The prices might vary depending on the act, I know for some shows you are not allowed to bring anything but a blanket, but others (like the orchestra) you can bring a full picnic basket with wine. If you want to bring chairs they have to be the low beach-chair type that only sit 6-9 inches off the ground. Every show theres always a trickle of grumpy guys walking his partys fold-up chairs back to the car. Im not going to tell everyone to start sneaking booze in their pockets (it would be easy to do) but plan ahead and dont show up hungry and thirsty or youll be at the mercy of the Aramark prices. As far as the actual ticket prices, thats set by the band itself. Blossom is not telling any bands to charge triple for close seats or sky-high VIP packages, those are methods for the band to make money off their most devoted fans to offset the industry trend of selling 99 cent singles instead of $15 albums. Other than the actual "facility charge" all the other fees are set by the ticket vending company, which again is not Blossoms call if Ticketmaster and LiveNation want to charge you multiple fees. The sound is fully dependent on the band. Did they bring the right stuff for an outdoor show? Do they set it up? Is it a big enough act to get the venue management to max it out? If you see a long-time road warrior like Bon Jovi or Iron Maiden they are probably going to tear the roof off the place and youll be shouting to talk to your neighbor However, other acts might be shooting for a more intimate sound or are not mixed right and it will be muddy and muted. To wrap up, if you plan ahead for the drive, the concessions, and the seats, and you are seeing a seasoned act, you can have a good time. This is not the venue for thrown-together cash-in tours or acts that typically play basketball arenas or theaters. Plan ahead and youll have a great time seeing a great band!

CA

Carrie Garnett

If I could give a negative number of stars, I would. This place is the absolute worst concert venue I have ever been to. My family and I drove 8 hours from Richmond, VA to see the Hank Jr/Chris Stapleton show (looked forward to it for MONTHS). Gates opened around 7 - we left our hotel (5 miles away) around 6 and ended up getting stuck in traffic for over an hour when we were 2 miles from the entrance. I kept wondering why traffic was at a standstill, but upon entering the gates I figured out why. The pedestrian crosswalk is on the same side of the road as the flow of traffic, therefore cars were constantly stopped to let people cross. Once we turned past the gate, we were sent down a road - 2 lanes of traffic going the same direction - which forked - either stay straight or go left. I am almost 5 months pregnant and upon pulling up to the parking attendant, my brother rolled down the window to ask which available lot would be closest to park in for a pregnant woman, but the attendant cut him off before he could finish and said, "i dont do pregnant parking" and then proceeded to send us to the left, which upon turning the corner we found actually sent us to the lot furthest away from the venue. He deliberately sent me to the lot that required the most walking. If he had pointed me straight (where half of all cars were going) I would have been in the lot closest to the venue gate. So, I then walked a mile to the gate and proceeded to stand in line for another 40 minutes trying to get in. At this point, we can hear Chris Stapleton playing. The line NEVER MOVES and I see ahead, that no one is getting past the gate. Finally, a staff member directs everyone to a different gate, the current one it seemed was having "security issues". Once we finally get in, we get to our seats (we purchased lawn seats) only to see that whoever BRILLIANTLY designed this amphitheater failed to keep in mind that people sitting in the back, who also paid for tickets, may have a crazy desire to SEE THE STAGE! Thats right, the ceiling (a.k.a. "tent) over the stage came down so low that anyone sitting in the back of the lawn or on the sides couldnt see it. So, that 8 hour drive was a complete WASTE of time, money, and excitement. I never once saw any artist and the sound was drowned out by the setup as well. I could have had the same experience sitting in my car listening to the radio and saved myself the ticket, the trip, the hotel, the stress, the anger, you get the picture. NEVER AGAIN! I wouldnt recommend this venue to my worst enemy. And - i wont even get into the drunks and overcrowded bathrooms or the people who decide to butt in line and/or pass you in stopped traffic because obviously their time is more precious than mine... Awful, horrible experience.

ME

Megan k.

First let me say, that I have never had a problem with tickets and such since Ive started going here. But I went to an event Friday May, 12th and had one of the worst experiences with your box office. My party and I were waiting in line, to be scanned in with our tickets. I had my tickets on the mobile app, and when one of the ladies scanned ours, they were unable to print them. They stated it was their fault, they scanned them with the wrong machine, and we would have to go to the box office to ask them to be printed out (we had pavilion seats). So my party and I walked over to the box office where one of the ladies, I didnt catch her name, but she had shoulder length blonde hair and glasses, proceeded to YELL at me that my tickets did not exist anymore and that my credit card was declined. I knew I had been charged and that she was wrong, and while I was trying to explain she shoved a phone number at me and told me Id have to call discover. Well at this point I was on the verge of panic and tears because I had known that I had purchased these tickets and had got a confirmation email, which I was desperately trying to find. Then low and behold this lady said she may have checked the wrong account, which she did. No apology for her rude behavior, and her manager or whoever was back in the box with her (short spiky blonde hair), didnt help either. All I got was a sarcastic remark that I had better print out my tickets the next time. If this is how you are going to treat your guests who paid to see events, then why should I continue to give you my business? Like I said Ive never had a problem with tickets like that before, but my situation could have been handled a whole lot better by your staff than it was.

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