White River Amphitheatre — Attraction in Bonney Lake

I really enjoyed the White River Ampitheater. This was our first time coming. We attended the Train, Goo Goo Dolls, and Allen Stone concert. Their performances were phenomenal!

In addition to tickets, we purchased Star Parking, which is parking right next to or in front of the gates. Star parking was so helpful in making the night feel more pleasant and less rushed.

We arrived at 5 PM, having decided to arrive 2 hours prior to the start of the show. The gates opened at 5:30 (1.5 hours prior to the start of the show).

We had read other reviews that said arriving too close to the start of the show can be agonizingly slow, with many people missing 1 to 2 hours of the program. The roads leading to this out-of-the-way Ampitheater in Auburn/Enumclaw are only two lanes no matter which direction you come from. Leaving was a breeze because of star parking and because we headed for Renton Highlands Instead of Seattle. We got home at 11:40 pm.

We brought our own dinners (Jersey Mike's Subs), so did not purchase beverages or meals at the venue.

However, you could buy fried chicken, soft baked pretzels, nachos, and hamburgers. Beer and other alcoholic drinks were available. Bottled water, which we did buy, was $5 -$7 a piece.

I felt that the food was a little cheaper than you would get at a Mariners ball game, but not by much.

There were plenty of bathrooms, but during Intermissions the bathrooms closest to the Ampitheater did have lines for both men and women. There is another set farther away that was faster and had relatively no line. Some stalls had graffiti. The bathrooms were clean of toilet paper. (There are no toilet paper liners. Some of the patrons made some pretty terrible messes and those liners would have helped...ugh.) I didn't notice if there were bay changing stations.

The Ampitheater is covered with an uncovered lawn at the rear. I heard that if it rains on the lawn audience, White River will offer an upgrade per person to sit in the seats. My friends paid $10 +tax per person to upgrade to the seats that night.

Any seat will have an excellent view of the stage. You just need to decide how far you want to be. The seats were comfortable for plastic stadium seats.

If it is cold or rainy, in audition to coats or jackets consider bringing a blanket or a light weight plastic reflective survival blanket or both; and gloves. These items will make your night much more comfortable.

No smoking allowed in the stands, though some do not care to follow that rule.

The stage has two giant screens on either side for pre-show commercials and for enlarging the view of the performance.

The on-stage lighting and occasional fireworks are nice. The sound is amazing.

We will definitely come back for...

It was easy to find the place using GPS. I parked in general parking, I got there early to wait in line. They let us park early which was nice. waited in line to get into the venue, but that was my choice since I got there so early.

I had friends that got there much later than us and were near the back of the line and ended up getting in the venue maybe 5 or 10 minutes after us. So lines move pretty fast.

If you are going during the summer months, there is little to no shade when waiting so dress/prep accordingly

You can Not bring your own lawn chair, must rent. You will need to have a CLEAR BAG. The non clear bag criteria is super small so invest in a clear bag before coming here. (I had one already and suspected that it might be this way)

I got one of the mason cocktails (spiked strawberry lemonade) it was like 8/10 and two non bubbly liquid death.....($40 total 😱😱😱)

Found our seats easily. Food was yummy and relatively normal price for a venue ( brisket nachos 15...chicken strip basket 15) large enough portions that fed two people up completely full.

The concert sounded great here and I enjoyed my experience. The seating in the 100 section are not as stadium slanted as I wish so if you are short expect that you will not be able to see over the heads of people.

Now....getting out of the venue...this was hell.

To get out it was packed and slow but that's expected. But once you get on the roads it's even more horrid. There will be police blocking off the ways you need to go and you will have to go around crazy ways. For the most part there is well marked paths saying this or that way. There was just one way that says "Tacoma ahead" and then there was no turning sign so I was just driving along a road till I turned around and went back into the mess since Tacoma was in fact not ahead. 😔

So expect to be tired and stuck in gross traffic for a hot minute after the show.

Over all like a 7/10 overall including all the good and bad

*Side note: two of the photos are mine and two are ones off a Facebook group I am part of. The other two are just a little more clear and you can get an idea of the venue during a show a...

1 star for the venue. It’s not worth coming here unless you have a band that you absolutely love and can’t wait to see at a different venue. As many of the other reviews have said, the parking situation is terrible. It’s dangerous because it takes 2-hours to get out of the parking lot and if there were a medical emergency there would be no way for paramedics to get in since there is no system for how cars should leave. There are no bathrooms while you’re trapped in the parking lot either. They don’t let you wait in common areas at the venue even though they know everyone is about to be trapped in their parking lot for hours. It takes hours to get in - traffic is horrible so expect the 50 minute drive from Seattle to turn into 2.5-3 hours. The drinks are so expensive- $7 for a water or $11 for a cup of water on a hot day. When you buy a drink they ask for a tip and say “we’re volunteers” - volunteers get paid tips? How can the venue not afford to pay workers when they charge $7 for a water. Security getting in was another horrible experience. They made me take off a 4” chain that was dangling off my purse and throw it away, but for some reason my purse strap that I was carrying my bag with was totally fine that was 4x the length. I got told by one person coming in that my purse was ok, then another guy came up and said I couldn’t go in because my purse was too big (it got measured at the entrance), then another guy took the chain off and finally a security worker said I was good to go with my purse. I have been to so many concerts and concert venues with this same purse and have never had an issue. It met all requirements listed on their venue website. It seems there are arbitrary rules that none of the staff are trained on. Until this place is forced to make the safety changes that are necessary for parking, pay people that are working there, and educate their staff on their own security policies, I will never...