Ruth Eckerd Hall — Attraction in Clearwater

Attended The Florida Orchestra (TFO) concert here. The concert was spectacular as is to be expected of TFO. I am attaching pics of the opening movie theme conducted by a dinosaur. But this review is about the Eckert Hall: While the acoustics are very good, there are major flaws to this venue. Some are unable to be fixed, others are just poor planning by those who manage this facility. Before I explain the major flaws of this venue , I must also acknowledge how very courteous every person from parking attendants to ushers was here. The most obvious flaw is the seating. There is no middle aisle(s). FIFTY seats wide with no escape aisle?! Where IS the Fire Marshall? There is NO way this is a safe layout for access and egress! Does someone have to have a coronary and be inaccessible to paramedics in the middle seats? Or, worse yet, would a fire or other tragedy happen before the city wakes up to demand fixing this unsafe condition? Even the ticket salespeople are very aware of how undesirable it is for people attending. So they have to warn buyers that the more central they sit, the more people you have to climb over to get to your seat. And the closer you sit to the side aisle, the more people who climb over you! With minimal investment, 4 center seats could be removed, and a center aisle can be stepped to safely provide access and egress. Many middle seats are empty due to the nuisance of having to climb over 25 people to get to them anyway! SIGHT LINES not only lousy but are worse for the more expensive tickets?! The stage is FLAT not stepped, so the front 15+ rows are too low to see past the front row of the orchestra! People in the cheaper seats, which are higher up, can see the entire orchestra. How absurd is this? Obviously, this stage was designed for multiple uses, which would require a flat performance for ballets or musicals, etc. So, sadly, with the tremendous talent of 100 musicians, they are stuck with a facility which does not have risers which are common in most orchestral facilities. So sound is great, but you may as well just close your eyes to listen. At Chicago's Orchestra Hall, the front three rows of seats are half price because you can only see the front row of the orchestra. Quite a contrast to Eckerd Hall, where the first dozen rows should be cheapest!

TFO is very talented with brilliantly planned concerts. However, to make themselves available, they perform concerts at 3 venues, here at Eckerd, Straz in Tampa, and Mahaffey in St Petersburg. So, while they are smartly being 'local' to each city, they do not have the luxury or expense of a permanent location to be properly arranged. One wonders if a nearby high school auditorium or mega church might be better arranged, have far more comfortable seating with much Safer...

Beautiful venues, incredibly disappointing policies.

For some reason, they refuse to sell tickets that will leave a seat by itself. I am only one person. I often go to shows alone. This is a new trend that is emerging where I am limited in my options for what tickets I am able to purchase, often times having to wait for them to release wheelchair/companion seats for me to purchase on the day of the show. This just doesn't feel fair.

And I don't think a $17 "convenience fee" is appropriate when I have had to make several phone calls and several inquiries to the website in an attempt to buy this ticket. Exactly where is the convenience that I am paying for? I did more work than you to facilitate this purchase and it took me three days of back and forth to get it done.

Ultimately, I want the same option for good seats that everybody else gets but I am finding more and more my options are limited and they just don't seem to care. Stop discriminating again solo patrons; I should be able to buy whatever seat I want to view the performance from. REMINDER: you are the business, the burden of selling all of the tickets is on you, why are you making it my problem?

While I am here, please stop making people who just want to buy a bottle of water wait in the same drink line as people who are ordering mixed drinks. I have waited over 30 minutes in line for a bottle of water on many occasions. It just seems like you could be doing things better.

I did buy the ticket for the show but I will be seriously considering if I patronize this company again. It feels discriminatory regardless of what Janet in the ticket office says. You had tickets to sell, you wouldn't sell them to me. What is not discriminatory about that?

Do better. Or don't. I will cease to care after...

Short version: Venue and employees were hands off for the chaos in the front. It is NOT worth the expensive tickets for good seats at this venue.

My father and I paid a very hefty price for very good tickets to see Heilung, and it was the worst concert experience of my life. The performing artist, Heilung was amazing, but the venue and the staff ruined the experience. The only reason that the venue does not have a single star is due to the beautiful experience my father and I had during the hour waiting for the doors to open, the venue has a beautiful outdoor bar area that really set us up to have a good mood prior to the concert.

During the concert, to everyone's surprise, the first several rows were standing room. This completely blocked the view of the first several seated rows. Which means my father and I had to stand in order to see the visual components of the concert (which was the point of the expensive tickets). We did not mind standing but much of the crowd behind us was displeased at the standing room. What I couldn't believe was that the ushers were standing by the door and just allowing all the chaos to happen. Eventually my father and I were physically threatened by the people behind us to sit ("SIT THE F--K DOWN!!!) and so to avoid a physical confrontation, we sat but the people in front of us continued to stand (I suppose the threat didn't make it to the first few rows) and so we missed most of the show by not standing.

What shocked me was how the venue and its employees, who were present and witnessing all this chaos, did not step in and were party to the miserable experience had by those who paid for some of the most...