Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater — Attraction in Bridgeport

Just saw Weezer here. Concert was good. Venue is mid. First opening band was pretty good. Second opening band was quite strange, and everyone I was sitting near had a very hard time understanding them, it might have been the acoustics or their equipment. Weezer sounded great, we could hear and understand everything even with the crowd singing along.

Things I liked about the venue: Parking was included unless you wanted premium. The parking lot is small, so if you get to your car quickly getting out is not too bad. Security check-in was super fast and efficient. There were multiple merch tables, and many vendors for food and drink, which kept lines short. Most food and some beverage vendors were local businesses. Clean bathrooms. All the way to the end of the concert. The staff are on point, and super helpful. They have stool seats at tables that are ticketed, I will try them next time.

Things I didn't like about the venue (in order of ease for the venue to fix): The floors were very slick when wet, even indoors, because the concrete was so smooth, almost polished, and open to the air, so some rain got in, and water tracked in made it very slippery, like walking on black ice. And, the stairs were completely outdoors so it was very easy to fall going up and down the stairs.

Some of the food vendors didn't sell drinks, and couldn't hand out cups of water, so you had to go to multiple trucks or kiosks in order to have food and beverage. I don't know if this was a policy of the venue, or of the food truck that I went to, but it made it difficult to eat hot food and drink a cold beverage at the same time.

The giant fans gave us a nice breeze on a very humid 80° day, but were off during the headliner, so it got very stuffy, and the smoke from people nearby smoking and vaping lingered and aggravated his smoke allergy. It was better than a fully indoor venue, but not as good as fully outdoor lawn seats. Maybe they were off because the fans make it harder to hear or disrupt the fog effects during the concert. I didn't notice any fan noise in between the changes from band to band, but I did notice it was extra sweaty and smoky with the fans off.

The seats two rows in front of me were wet. This is an open air theater with large tent structures, and an awning that covered the VIP section, walkway for food, drinks and bathroom, and a few rows of seats. My seats were high enough in the nosebleed section that I was still covered by the awning, but the seats two rows in front of me were in the gap between the awning and the tent and those people would have been wet if it rained. I would use seat geek to try to find seats that are not in that strip of seats that get rained on. I was in section 302 row HHH, so, in section 302 row GGG and FFF will be wet.

The seat I was sitting in was not pointed towards the stage. This is a huge oversight by whoever engineered or designed this theater. When I sat facing forward in my chair I was pointed about 30° to the left of the stage. This is ridiculous. I had to turn in my chair or keep my neck turned the whole time, NBD for a young person, but for us oldies who buy seats, this is uncomfortable for many hours (see photo.)

The seats are tight, and the rise on them is not very high, so unless you are both lean and tall, the seats are uncomfortable and don't provide a very good view. You're only about 5-6 inches above the head of the person in front of you, so if you are sitting behind someone tall, they will completely block your view. As an average height but wide person, I was very uncomfortable for the entire concert and spent a good portion of it walking around when the headliner wasn't playing so that I could be comfortable enough to make it all the way to the end of the concert. I sat next to my boyfriend who is average width but very tall, and a stranger who was both tall and wide, and I had to stand or sit on an angle in my seat so my shoulders didn't hurt. But I had to turn to the right to see the stage anyway, so, 2...

Wonderful venue! Great shows! On my first visit I asked two employees for directions back to my seat after getting lost half way through the show, instead of being helpful, they were complete morons! Lost a star for that! My second visit was quite enjoyable. After another visit to this wonderful venue on 7/31, I had to edit my last review. On my arrival I made it through the first security gate without an issue. Once I got to the ticket gate I had to stop to retrieve my ticket from my cellphone. In seconds there was a short middle aged/slightly older woman standing directly in front of me. As soon as I looked down from my phone, she was pointing at the sealed bottle of water in my pocket. Instead of a smile and a hello, she, in a not so friendly and welcoming tone, said, "you can't bring that in here! I'm gonna have to take that!" Now, not only did I make it through security without a problem, I still have not made it through the main gate, so I wasn't technically in the venue yet anyway. Not only was I confused, I was caught off guard by her unfriendly approach and Before I could think of a response, she was asking a gentleman from security for "backup" to take the water bottle away from me. This gentleman was obviously busy doing his job yet he was Friendly and cordial. He Simply explained the policy and I handed him the bottle, he took it and returned to his duties while I continued into the venue. I attend around 5 concerts or so a month and travel in 5 different States. Most venues don't allow outside food and beverages to be brought inside. That is completely understandable! But at Every other venue, it is allowed one or two smaller bottles of sealed water inside regardless of that policy, especially in the Hot Summer! I am currently on my "concert vacation" I have about 2 weeks worth of almost continuous shows to attend and I wasn't planning on spending any extra money from my budget at this venue on this particular day. I brought the water just in case I got thirsty and needed something to drink during the show if I got overheated. Even though I enjoyed the rest of the venue and the show, I was extremely thirsty and warm. I left my forms of payment inside my vehicle, so I went thirsty. Now I don't know if this is a Connecticut, a venue, or a staff issue, but I simply do not care! It is WRONG!!! I don't know if there's something in the water over there that's causing your staff to lack basic hospitality and consideration, a lack of knowledge and training of your staff, or the fact that your venue needs to catch up to the rest of the world around them, but for these reasons, I feel safer bringing my own water! I feel like this issue needs to be addressed and your policy needs to be updated to Accommodate modern Necessities for this time of the year especially! You lost another star on this account. If my rating was only based on my experiences with your staff, I would give you 0 Stars! But out of respect for your wonderful, beautiful, clean venue and the amazing acts and performances that are available here, you're now down to 3 stars! I wish this venue luck in finding and training better and more Accommodating staff! Hopefully, you can update your policies To adapt to today's Modern necessities And customer requirements! This is the only venue where I have not given a 5 star review for! Honestly I feel like someone there owes me $1 for my...

Beautiful concert location. The seating Layout and chair spacing is comfortable. Large video screens of performers were fantastic. The parking was included ( free ) and easily entered and exited. Good police help in the streets as we approached the parking lot. The food vendors and food choices were great with short lines. Both bands were obviously fantastic. The Dave Mason Band sound was clear. Steve Miller's sound was not clear- esp the vocals mics. They announced No Photography or Videos - but did nothing to enforce it- hard to see over everyone's cell phones.

But one very annoying venue security employee ( in a red tshirt with a flashlight) bothered us mid- song, midway into the 2nd Act! There were 6 empty seats to our right the entire concert- since 8pm. Yet - she accompanies a couple to sit in those (6) seats around 10pm and she rudely stops me from enjoying a favorite Steve Miller song and asks what seats we have- I tell her the 4 correct numbers (easy to say because the numbers are painted in large letters on the seats )- Actually we paid for four seats but only used 3 seats. She has the audacity to not believe me and asks me to show her our tickets! If they allowed paper tickets it would have been easy to do....but now she wants me to turn on my phone, go to the Wallet App and pull up each ticket! Uggh. We had been in our seats since 7:45pm, there are 6 empty seats plus our one all in a row, and she wants us to prove why we are in our correct seats and all they were was 2 people who either showed up 2 hours late to the concert or was she helping get them closer to the stage ???!! What the ....? I say to her I'm trying to listen to SM's song - please just let them sit down in any of those 6 empty seats. I mean they have 6 empty seats to choose from! Finally she leaves me alone and says ...." Never mind " and walks away. Later- she was at the end of our row just staring at me/ or them? Then when her annoying 2 friends ( who kept going in and out of the row - making us get up and down ), we saw her hugging these 2 particular guests goodbye! So now I think we understand! She knew these 2 people and was letting them in ( sneaking ) 2 friends or family into a choice block of 6 empty seats that were closer to the stage, BUT she has to disturb us and asks me to show our paid for tickets on my cellphone????? Please tell me what just happened!!! It's a shame this happened because other than this weird occurence- this really is a great venue. Steve Winwood and the Doobie Brothers - A++++++ FANTASTIC concert. Great songs, great videos and the sound...