Ogden Theatre — Attraction in Denver

Do not go to the Ogden if you are disabled.

I am an ambulatory wheelchair user- This means that while I can walk, doing so can be immensely painful and exhausting for my body. I explain this to to preface the experience.

After a short walk from the parking area last night, which I had known about and anticipated, my party and I arrived at the doors to attend our concert. My fiancé went to seek assistance from someone, as the line area was closed off with gates and I was not confident that I could maneuver my chair over to the line end, and would be perfectly happy waiting until the line died down a bit to be helped inside. I'm a hard line rule follower.

Instead, we were greeted by a member of security who said he had "seen me walk up" (which I did, using my chair as a walker) and asked several times, while looking at me in my wheelchair, "Who is in the wheelchair? Who is the chair for? Who needs the chair?" I raised my hand and said that I was, me, it's my chair.

He said that I would need to stand and walk through security since I was capable of it. I am not one to ever start a scene, so even though my group and I were thinking "Are you kidding me?", I obliged. I stood and waited for several minutes, leaned against whatever I could reach, to take pressure off of my body.

I was finally reunited with my chair after security, and the same man walked my party and I to the ADA area. Not slowly, not checking that I was able to follow in the crowd, not noticing how narrow and steep the hall and stairway were (Crushed fingers from my wheels meeting the walls, and ramming strangers' ankles due to steep ramps aren't fun). He let us into the ADA area, which was then closed behind us. Sealed off with ropes, which is not conducive to a safe environment that I could leave on my own. I could not leave to get to the restroom if I had needed it, not without finding someone to let us out or disrupting the crowd.

Several other people with power chairs, walkers, and crutches shared my experience as they talked before the concert. My fiancé told me that she had noticed a person with a glucose monitor being harassed for their emergency sugars, "because they were not purchased at the venue". This person had already cleared security, meaning their supplies had been OK'd by a member of staff before the harassment had taken place. None of us were given bracelets or markings to visit the bar, because the staff was either so unprepared for our presence, or they thought none of us would want to get a drink. There were five folding chairs available for people using crutches or canes, when the number of bodies in need was close to twenty.

Finally, when the show ended (that, I have no complaints about, it was great) we in the ADA area had to figure out how to free ourselves of the child's playpen we had been corralled into. A person with a forearm crutch was nearly bowled over by a member of security who was trying to rush me out quickly. (If she sees this, I'm sorry he did that- I was happy to wait.)

(tl;dr) In all, I saw several people being disrespected and endangered last night. Treated like inconveniences or unexpected hurdles. I'm no stranger to concert venues, I go to several shows a year. I may gripe about accessibility at some places, but the LACK of accessibility at the Ogden was downright deplorable. Do not go here if you are disabled, and especially if you are alone and disabled. No one will take you seriously without an able-bodied...

If I could give this venue more stars, I swear I would!

I've traveled to different venues across the country for shows, and driven states over to plenty. I recently drove to the Ogden for a Refused show, all way from south Texas (about 14 hours). I can't explain how amazing this venue is, from the layout, to the impeccable venue staff!

I was at the barricade for the show, and as any avid show goer knows, venue staff at the barricades are typically only there for crowd control. One of the staff members, Dylan, came around to talk to us about how the show will be rowdy, and the potential for crowd surfers, over all just letting us know to watch our heads and turn people feet first for safety. Shockingly, this was the only time in my life that a venue staff member actually came to discuss this kind of stuff with us. (This could be based on the shows we go to and the genre itself, but seeing someone take the time to come and talk to us about it was greatly appreciated!). On that note though, there were plenty of crowd surfers at our show but staff were helpful and kind with getting them down and making sure they were safe, plenty of shows I've gone to have the staff being aggressive and I've encountered plenty who yell at crowd surfers for doing so. Having this staff be so considerate to individuals going to a show to have fun was refreshing to say the least!

Now as I mentioned before, I'm from south Texas and southern hospitality runs deep here (aside from our local venues of course). The Ogden staff is the definition of southern hospitality, coming from a Texan! During the show we were packed in but the staff came around to be sure and give us all cold water, and even fan all of us off in the crowd with a hand held paper fan! In our shows down here, you're lucky to have a venue with ac or just a standing fan, the fact that this venue was beautiful, cool, and STILL fanned us off to be safe during the show was the icing on the cake.

While trying to get some photos during the show, the staff member Dylan moved away from my camera view. He told us he wanted to be sure to stay out of our photos as to not ruin them from the band performing - can't name the number of photos I have with venue staff standing front and center during an amazing performance. This interaction showed me just how considerate this venue and their staff are, and how amazing they made the show for all of us!

I can say with confidence that I'll be looking for more shows at the Ogden to travel to, made my 14 hour drive to Colorado worth it!

I can't recommend this venue enough, if you're considering seeing a show there please do, and while you're at it be sure to say hello to Dylan, I'm sure he'll take just as good of care of you as...

Been to a half dozen shows here now and each time I go back they improve various things, but the Achilles heel of the Ogden is the building itself. Sound quality / acoustics / mixing is not very good - it's far too loud, booming, and muddied to make out any detail. This is unlikely to deter the testosterone-fueled clientele.

If you are short, there's 1 place for you: and that's the balcony. It's pretty nice up there and you can have a clear view of the stage and even sit. They have done some nice renovations on the bathrooms and there're now 3 places to order drinks/water from so you can actually order a bottle of water (prices aren't bad) and take a leak and get back to your seat within 5-10 minutes now. (if you're in the balcony go quickly and have someone save your seat - vultures are everywhere!) They've also done a much better job now than in the past with the issue of heat - hundreds of people jamming out tend to get hot but the fans/vents are nice in keeping it cool.

It's a better venue than it has been in the past, but the issue of audio quality still makes me want to avoid it. I think if they just reduced the overall gain of everything it would help a lot. You can't hear instrument separation, and with an 8 piece band it's easy for everything to bleed together into a wall of noise, which doesn't happen at Red Rocks or Fiddlers Green where you can clearly hear each instrument. They've done a good job the last decade of making it a better experience, but the building itself is not good for discerning individual instruments with how loud / booming they...