Moody Amphitheater — Attraction in Austin

In my very first visit to this venue, I wanted to get my bases covered since I was going on my own to a concert. When I purchased my ticket through Ticketmaster they also offered some sort of parking ticket, since I'm not from Austin thought it would be convenient to pay for a parking spot in advance... mistake #1, because there was no specific parking and paid for nothing.

This place is surrounded by parking garages that might charge you around $15 per day and they are open up until 3 AM. This venue is in a very busy area near downtown, you may also find parking spots around the street. Some areas on the street have parking meter and you can either pay from your phone, or look for the machine on the street. There are those that will use coins, depends on the area.

Also, depending on where's your hotel, you may even walk to the venue but with the Texas hot weather I won't recommend it. You may also ride a scooter to get to near the area, just need to download the app, get familiar how to use it and go.

When I bought my ticket, it was almost a sold out, but it was easy to find a goods seat near the stage only to find out that this place may offer the same view from wherever you end up. Eventually, everyone is gonna stand up and block the view, will. Mistake #2, thinking that sitting in the 3rd row would guarantee a block free view. People from the very 1st row just stood throughout the whole concert forcing us all to just get up for a good view. I'm really tall and was able to enjoy, I'm sorry for those I ended up blocking. The seats are very narrow and close to each other. When the front row sits are empty there's just a bunch of people coming over to those seats enjoying the good view for a fraction of what they paid... sometimes they get caught but some others they didn't.

Know that some things were not allowed to bring such as non-clear purses. Clutches were fine but if wanted to bring something more useful it had to be in a clear bag, check the policy on the website of the venue. They didn't allow to go in with refillable water bottles, or big picnic mats. The wait to enter the venue took about an hour standing in the sun, the drinks were overpriced and no face mask was enforced.

I recently attended an outdoors concert in LA, and compared to this place in Austin... well, it sadly lacks a lot, is overpriced and lacks quality when it comes to the acoustics and don't have big screens. Also, protect yourself well while we continue under the COVID pandemic.

At the end of the day, your love for the artist performing might make you forget the unpleasant stuff until everything's over and leaves you feeling like they took advantage of your lack of knowledge about this place and city. Needless to say, parking in some areas at Austin are a big turn off. I didn't feel like wanting to come back and would prefer go somewhere else for concerts even if I have to drive somewhere...

Massive venue, yet nowhere to be. I purchased "Level Up" Tickets to the Lounge and Terrace for my friend's birthday. For double the price of a regular ticket you are granted access to places with no view.

The problem started at the gate. I asked employees scanning tickets and they didn't know what I needed to do to get access to the terrace and lounge. We walked in the lounge and couldn't find an employee to ask. We decided to try the terrace and the person at the steps said we needed wristbands. We are directed to the box office, show our passes, get wristbands, go to the terrace again and we are turned away, turns out we have the wrong wristbands, we go back to the box office, apparently its my fault they read my pass wrong and had previously just given me lounge wristbands, we were given new wristbands, finally get to the terrace and neither experience was worth it. The lounge was air conditioned. That was the only perk. You can't see the stage from in there though so we wouldn't stay in there for more than a few minutes. The terrace was pointless for a live show. There are 10 or less spots at the edge where you get a side view of the stage. Everyone else is stuck behind a column, banner, speaker tower or screen. Standing only. Dark and weirdly lit. The lawn is too far away to enjoy the show, the rest of the closer spots are folding chairs (this doesn't work for a number of reasons; many people are going to want to stand and dance to enjoy the show, forcing all those behind them to also stand, if attendees want the option of sitting down there should be seating on the wings so the dancing fans have a separate space like general admission or a 'pit', also your experience is disrupted every few minutes someone in your row needs the bathroom or a drink). I paid to see if the terrace and lounge experience was worth it. I would not pay for either again. Drinks are festival prices. My second trip to the bar I'm informed that I need a third wristband. While uninformed, I don't blame new employees, more than half that I encountered were cheerful and kind. I do think its a bit of a scam to charge double the ticket prices, promising an elevated live music experience, but you just end up with wristband whiplash and...

Lawn was terrible. At one point security rudely made everyone squish to the front of the lawn area. Volunteers consistently stood in front of people seated in the lawn. Every single person who sat in the seats needed help finding their seats because they were not labeled adequately, so people were constantly standing in front of lawn. The layout of the venue, with wide pathways in front of the lawn and a not high enough lawn section, encourages people to get up constantly throughout the entirety of the concert whenever they please to go to the bathroom or get more drinks, so the view from the lawn is constantly blocked. Sporting event style concession stands also add to the level of disrespect the venue encourages from its patrons. No other venue in Austin makes it so easy for concert goers to disrespect the artists and other concert goers. No other venue would have the trash cans emptied during the concert in front of concert goers because the bins were overflowing with beer cans. They clearly care more about the sales of alcohol than they do offering a genuinely good concert experience. Pay more for seats and you get glorified plastic lawn chairs, so tightly packed that when people in your row inevitably get up to pee or get more beer, you have to figure out how to let them out of your row. Acoustics are a bit off in this place, it’s a bit too open and lawn section audio sucks, noticeably better closer to center of theatre. Also, life hack, save yourself the trouble of getting a ticket and stand on the sidewalk outside of the venue, sounds just as good there. Bones of this place are good, but the venue can’t decide whether it wants to offer patrons a good concert experience or just serve as a place for people to have something to do...