Wulfrun Hall — Attraction in Wolverhampton

Nice venue with great sound quality, but very poor accessibility for disabled visitors. I booked tickets then contacted the access team to request a wheelchair space as is typical for most venues. The venue has no public phone number at all, so no access phone line available. Had to email their access team. The reply I received was a seemingly automated reply linking to their online access policy and not answering any of my questions. I responded again and was told I couldn't bring my wheelchair as I had to have booked a specific wheelchair ticket to do this. This is not standard for venues and was not made clear to me at the time of purchase. I was told I could come to the box office on the night and 'see what [they] could do to facilitate [me]', but no reassurance that this would guarantee me a seat or wheelchair space. I replied and asked if this meant I would have to buy additional tickets to be guaranteed a seat for the concert and received no reply for a week. Disappointed but still keen to go I went ahead and booked seated tickets for the same concert (I can stand for very short periods of time with the help of crutches). After a week I received a reply telling me that there was still a wheelchair space I could have, but only after me buying the additional tickets assuming based on their email that that was my only guarantee of a seat. The website gives no specific indication of the nearest accessible parking, only a Google maps link to every car park within several miles of the venue. On arriving and walking for several minutes on crutches from the nearest car park I was exhausted and immediately needed to sit down, but the downstairs bar did not have a single seat. I was not able to sit down until I got upstairs (AT LEAST 10 minutes of walking and standing from the nearest car park to the first available seat, maybe more if you are slow at walking. There are a couple of on-street parking spaces directly outside the venue but these were all taken). Upon reaching the balcony I saw the wheelchair area and it is at the absolute back of the balcony- literally the worst seat in the house. Most venues have a raised downstairs area cordoned off so disabled people are not missing out on a decent view, but not this venue. The positives: lift at the entrance, lift to the balcony, upstairs disabled bathroom was in good shape. The venue itself is nice and the sound quality was very good, better than other similar sized venues I've been to. Unfortunately though the accessibility otherwise fell short of basically every other venue...

It is difficult to rate this venue so poorly as the concert hall itself is genuinely quite good; that's not to say that I think they've missed the mark with having the stage so low in relation to the standing visitors. At 6' tall, I found it difficult to see much over the crowds in front of me as the audiences' gaze would typically be upwards rather than right ahead.

That said, it was air-conditioned nicely so early on the temperature was enjoyable, getting warmer as the venue filled to capacity.

Access is typically poor; by this I mean if you're anywhere near the centre of the room or front you're going to find it difficult to get out should you need to make use of the toilets; other standing venues I've visited typically have an outer gangway kept clearly for people to move in and out of the venue. Not here. Three doors at the rear and two exits at the front would cause havoc if they needed to empty this place quickly.

As for the bar, what a joke. Three doors in and out with four unisex single toilets. Massively understaffed. At any one point, there was in the region of 100 people waiting, and I counted 6 bar staff at most. Not much of a choice either. It was £7.50 for Birra Moretti on tap, slightly less for Amstell, Inches Cider, or bottles.

All was overpriced rubbish. I had one of each, Amstel and Moretti, and honestly, it was a case of which was best of a bad bunch. Flat, tasteless swill. If the venue doesn't want to encourage drinking, that's fine, but over pricing rubbish isn't the way to do it.

Once you're in the venue, you're stuck in the venue. You can't go in and come back out to return later, so be warned, if you are expecting to enjoy a drink and merriment before the performance, don't do it here. Go elsewhere, then get there before the acts kick off. Honestly, don't even give these shysters the satisfaction of paying them for the utter garbage they serve as beer.

Considering they've spent a hell of a lot of time and money refurbishing this place it wouldn't bother me never to visit it...

Ticket app “the halls “ is appalling and decided to stop showing my tickets the day of the gig , so had to go to the box office and get a good old paper ticket.

Queue managers outside seemed pretty undertrained but friendly so I’d judge them ok . The Wulfrun venue is clean and I believe recently refurbished and the sound quality is ok ( it wasn’t for the support tho ) so that’s the best I can say for that .

The room itself is long and thin with a ridiculous tiny balcony right at the back . I wanted seated tickets for my friend who has mobility problems but there were never any for sale so had to buy standing tickets . I even emailed the venue re this beforehand and they were singularly unhelpful and despite disability just went “tough” .

There were no seated tickets anywhere else and for concert goers “of a certain age “ this was frankly pitiful . The floor is flat and you simply cannot see as a woman of average height . All I could see was a sea of bald men swaying from Side to side and giving me whiplash as I tried to negotiate their annoying bobbing heads , and that’s before I get to the people who confuse a gig with the pub and spend the entire time pushing past you backwards and forwards to get drinks and toilet trips ( if you are doing this constantly GO TO THE BACK )

I wouldn’t return to this venue . It’s stupid long and thin layout and lack of seating , coupled with an inoperable app which the venue insist on using for reasons best known only to themselves, as well as an overall lack of view made it possibly the worst venue I’ve attended for a live gig ever . I had issues with the Slade Rooms last time I went ( poor sound , jostling drunks ) but at least I could SEE and it wasn’t such a crush .

Despite the poor venue - the band even laughed at the stupid balcony setup - the band themselves were excellent. I’ll just try to see them elsewhere in future .

(Photo from before most people...