Stir Cove — Attraction in Council Bluffs

I had a very unpleasant first experience at Stir Cove recently when I went to see Pentatonix. I was clearly not the only unhappy person attending that evening. For starters, being a first time visitor, I was NOT informed that certain baggage/purses were not allowed upon entry. I made my way to the entrance after 15 minutes and was informed THERE that I would need to return my purse to the car. Shocked that I might have missed those details on the event on Facebook, where that information SHOULD have been posted, there was nothing there to notify attendees that this was a new policy. The man who didn't let me in pointed to a sign behind him and said the policy was put in place just this year. That sign should have been at the very BACK of the line so people wouldn't have to wait for 20 minutes, only to have to go back to their car and get in line again. Once in line again, I saw more women getting out of line for purses. The people at the first checkpoint who checked ID's for those who were going to drink should have been more keen to letting people know that their purse may not be accepted inside. The sign at the main gate should have been visible from the very beginning.

Second, I did not know chairs were acceptable. Being a first time attendee at Stir Cove, you would think that they would be a lot more detailed on event pages. I've been to other "general admission" performances and not one has accepted your own chair. How, as a first timer, would I know that I could take a chair? That also should have been included on the event page for the concert I attended.

While I didn't take a chair, by the time I was curious how the layout would be and if it would be too packed. I wondered if the people organizing the event would have been a little intelligent about this and calculated the space needed, not just for people, but for chairs. Ironically, as soon as my friend were at the gate again, the man checking chairs yelled out that there was no more room for chairs and that everyone would have to go return them to their vehicles. Many people yelled out in anger because now THEY, too, would have to go back to their cars and get BACK in line all over again.

I don't think I've ever been to such an unorganized event like this one. Little to zero consideration was taken for the space needed for the occupancy plus chairs, and there was not enough information on the event posted on Facebook for people to know what to expect. There should have been signs about the "no purses" policy and that also should have been made clear on the event page. If you post an event on Facebook, that is exactly where people will look to if they want to know more information about the venue.

For a first time experience, it was bad enough for me not to want to go back again. I'd rather make the drive elsewhere to see performers if this is the kind of outcome that this...

We recently went to a few concerts at Stir Concert Cove. The last one we went to was last night. The opening band came out and after a song or two spoke of his political position to the crowd and got the group of those who shared his belief all riled up, this group who were down in front of the stage started chanting USA!!! USA!!! They then kept trying to get it going on and off again doing his bands session. They drank considerably around us, where we were sitting and we're intoxicated before the main act came. When the main act came on the group next to us were standing in a large group where they were yelling over the music having a conversation. Then they started in pushing and shoving each other and stepped on one of the members of my parties toes several times, but we're too drunk to realize how loud they were, or that they were stepping on people's feet.

During the concert as well, they were smoking right next to us and the smoke was rather annoying. One of my party tried to start up a conversation with them making small talk hoping that they could fit it in the conversation that they were alittle loud, and accidentally stepping on people's feet with their boots, btw she had flip flops on....ouch. the group started chest bumping each other and then tried to dance with their dates when the headliner sang a popular song.

This group frankly ruined our concert experience. A group next to us told us what they were seeing and that they were having their experienced ruined as well by this group. The one lady told us they paid $94 a ticket for this concert, and we're feeling slighted by this groups behavior. Of course we made sure they knew that group was not with us....

Wish the opening act hadn't stirred up such a negative connotation to bring on this kind of group behavior. I really liked the heXliner, and was excited about going.

If this continues Ioght have to rethink going there for concerts. It is quite a disappointing night last night. ...

This venue has such a nice layout. But I had two issues this past weekend.

First issue. Last year, the “party pit” included private bathrooms and a private bar. That was not the case this weekend. I haven’t seen it state anywhere that the party pit doesn’t include that anymore. If that’s the case, then please update what those tickets include. I was told that the “party pit” tickets only included the party pit this year. No private bathrooms. No private bar. I spent extra money for the private bathrooms and bar.

Second issue: lines to get in. There was one giant line with a huge group of people next to the gate. Once enough people started bringing it to the staff/security’s attention, they started trying to form lines. What a mess. I had general admission tickets and was told there was a separate line for those with GA and didn’t have any chairs or bags to check. A group of people and I were told by 6 different staff members that the line we were in was general admission with no bags or chairs. We asked more staff members on the line situation and several said “I don’t know what’s going on”. We get up to the gate and then another staff said this was a vip only line. It’s aggravating when we asked 6 different people and got the same answer but was told we needed to go to the very end when we finally got to the front after being in line for one hour. And the signs at the front gate saying “beat the line”, “no bags/chairs”, general admission? They didn’t use those. The staff didn’t know what they were doing when it came to line control. Absolutely ridiculous. I used to love this venue but my experience this past weekend was awful. There is so much miscommunication and nothing is clear. I’m hoping this is due to being the beginning of the season and they’re still working some kinks out. My advice, make sure your staff and security are all on the same page and can CORRECTLY guide people to where...