Stephens Auditorium — Attraction in Ames

The venue atmosphere is both 5 stars and 1 stars at the same time! Once you are walking into the theater and sitting down enjoying the show, it's 5 stars for sure...the sound booms and I don't believe that there is a bad seat in the house. The staff is friendly and very relaxed and helpful. The parking situation could definitely be impoved and the entrance situation is confusing if you have not been here before. But the 1 star has to be the random concession and restroom situation. The women's restroom situation is so bad, they should be forced to rent extra restrooms for concerts. Bathroom access requires patrons to walk all the way up and then back down stairs to find them. If you are young, not a big deal, but I cannot imagine being either elderly or have any mobility issues...it would be a nightmare! I must guess that some people have anxiety about needing to use the restroom....

Great shows at great prices! Also I love you have by supper tickets for certain restaurants before the show.

Only note if you're handicaped you need to go outside and around to the back of the building to get from lobby to handicap seating. This might not be a big deal but the ONLY bathrooms in the whole place are in the main lobby. Example of issue: by the time we got from our seats outside to the bathroom the intermission is already over. We then still had to go back outside and back around the building to our seat. Mom and I ended up missing over 10+ minutes on the 2nd act and had to find our seats in the dark. (Next time we plan on doing sears in the far back of the main floor. This way we only having to deal with the elevator and a few steps. We will be a lot further away from stage but will be worth it to not go outside in the...

Venue was very unorganized in their handling of the 10pm show for Matt Rife on 11/02. Waited over an hour in line just to get in. Didn’t make it inside until 10:30. Show was delayed due to their lack of organization. There was a medical emergency near the end of the event and the venue didn’t even have the common sense to turn up the lights for medical staff to attend to the patient. Witnessed people having to hold their phone lights around medical staff, just so they were able to attend to the patient. You could tell that staff members of the venue were not trained well to handle an emergency. Don’t think I’d attend another show at this venue. Only positive I can come away with is the free parking right...