Xfinity Theatre — Attraction in Hartford

WARNING! AVOID!!! UNSAFE VENUE!!!

I have attended well over one-hundred concerts in my lifetime and can honestly say that the Blink-182 show last night (7/24/24) at the Xfinity Theatre was, hands down, the worst experience I’ve ever had.

What I witnessed was so atrocious that I feel compelled to give notice to the local government, the police force, and the fire marshall.

There is gross mis-management happening here and the owners of this venue should be ashamed of how this place is run.

Avoid the Xfinity Theater like the plague, especially if you’re considering going as a family, your children are not safe here.

I could easily author a 3,000+ word essay justifying the aforementioned statements but will distill the information down to the key points you as the consumer need to know.

PARKING

After doing some research about this aspect of the venue I read things like “consider VIP” parking and “they have this down to a science,” neither of which are accurate. There was so much traffic surrounding the venue that it took almost a full hour to travel two miles. If I had paid for VIP parking I would not have been able to use it; local police were rerouting traffic in every direction, you simply could not get to the venue itself in a car, we were forced to park in an area which required a 20+ minute walk from our vehicle to the front gate.

LAWN AREA

We purchased tickets for the lawn and it was absolutely oversold, there was an ocean of people; so many in fact that you were unable to move around; they literally had us packed in like sardines. This issue was further exacerbated by the fact that the lawn area has a single entrance/exit consisting of a very long staircase running at what I estimate to be a 60 degree angle. If there was a fire or other catastrophic event there’s simply no way for the massive crowd to exit safely. I was filled with anxiety the entire time,” if something bad happens I’m going to be trampled to death.

LAWN SEATING

You are not allowed to bring your own chairs to the lawn area and can purchase ones to rent. There were at least a 100 people walking around with chairs that had no place to put them because of the previously stated sardine situation. I found this to be a disgusting money grab, the venue needs to stop renting chairs once they run out of space.

OVERSERVING ALCOHOL

About one-quarter of the crowd was completely wasted. It’s a rock concert, a summer night, a multi-platinum national act, and a free country. People like to drink, I get it. However, there are two major issues here. At most venues when someone is unable to walk or function they get ejected, that simply was not the case here; security staff paid no mind to people in this condition.

What’s even more egregious is the overservering of alcohol with reckless abandon. I stayed at this show for only about fifty minutes and during this time I watched at least a dozen vendors move through the crowd selling beer out of coolers, not a single one was selling water. If you are unable to stand, the venue should not be selling you more alcohol. I watched someone puke their guts up only to have a vendor offer them more alcohol seconds later. This disturbed me to the point where I said something to the vendor, “hey, a lot of these people are really messed up”, the response “What do I care?”

That last statement really sums it up; the owners, the management, and the staff “don't care” and you shouldn’t either.

I will NEVER return to the Xfinity Theater and encourage you to do the same and vote with...

I would give this place a negative 5 stars if I could. The venue is decent, however Xfinity, being in the ummmm..... communication business should be embarrassed by their utter lack of skills in communication. Come on get your act together there (get it? Funny huh?) Your company is the most expensive provider in the country and on a simple event (I've seen 2 in as many weeks) rent some large roadway signs to help police direct traffic. And not just 1 or 2 please... stop being so cheap. What do we get? A 2'x3' paper sign saying parking this way. Only to be routed to the $50 VIP parking.... waiting in line for over an hour, missing opening acts.... to find out..... no, you have to drive a half a mile down the road... park in some muddy lot, climb over a torn down chain link fence, walk back a half a mile (all while hearing Garbage play.... I'm still angry I missed Shirley Manson) to get to the staircase to the venue..... oh no... that's blocked off... great....walk a little further.... you need to walk down a slippery, muddy slope to get to the entrance.... Dead and Company was an absolute nightmare.... no signage to say all lots full, you need to park at the XL center... nope... the cops have to explain 1 person at a time that's what you have to do... all streets are blocked off by police so all traffic is stopped by people asking police what to do. I'll leave that there... let's go inside... I won't even talk about the security lines... y'all should be able to get that mess under control. Your Xfinity Hotspot is a joke! You have what, 50" flat screen TV's that you can barely see they are so small.... playing anything but the concert we came to see and some random radio station playing music so loud you can't hear the band. I don't know, maybe your bar would make more money if people could take a break, grab a drink AND see the show they came to see. Now, let's get to the actual theater... huge lcd screens.... yay... quite impressive... but... no... 2 up front, not working.. the ones for the lawn... only 1 had the right aspect ratio.... so we chose that one to be near... and... huge dead pixel in the screen. I would never see another show there if I could but it's pretty much the only game in town....

I enjoyed it overall with a few exceptions. Pros: *Handicap accessible from parking to seating. *Fairly large lawn space where lawn chairs are allowed and rented. *You can bring in your own water and food. Food must be in a gallon ziplock. No coolers *Projection cameras for the lawn, but with enough of an angle to it to be able to see the stage as well. *Covered actual seated area for a price.

Cons: PARKING. If I have a ticket I should be able to park at the venue and not have to walk over a four lane highway to get to the venue. Parking at the venue is available if you arrive about 2-4 hours early. You can also get VIP parking for a huge price. And private parking lots offer for a price as well. Cheapest I saw was $15. This is ridiculous IMHO. Not everyone that is unable to walk far has a handicap plate. $$$ I guess that is the biggest part of the music industry in the digital age. suck them dry at the show. Covered seating area tickets are more than double the cost of lawn seats or more. Rent a lawn chair. Buy anything. Park your car AT the actual venue. Sit in a covered area in case of rain..or close... or actually ON the stage for some shows... But it will cost you a bundle. Upgraded area is bountiful and lawn area is not. *Security is lax on the lawn. Smoking is permitted. So is underage drunkenness apparently. I moved my blanket three times and still ended up having a sleeping drunk teenager who was previously wrestlefighting his friend right next to me AGAIN. CT people use hateful words too, regardless of who might be sitting right there. *Unless this is a kid specific show, do not bring them. Too many drunk people doing stupid things ruin the fun for others. Kids would just be out of place and possibly hurt. *Trash everywhere. Fries, beer cans, nachos all over the lawn. Gross...