The Great Saltair — Attraction in Magna

Weezer concert Aug 2023. The venue is decent for a concert; they built an outdoor stage and viewing area (not really an amphitheater), and I had a good experience for the concert. I was closer to the back but I could see the stage the whole time. Sound quality was decent. The view across the lake as the sun was setting was beautiful. The food was affordable l, but nothing to write home about; it is what you would expect from a place like this (nachos, burgers, etc.).

The thing to know about this place as a concert venue is the parking. I arrived half an hour before the scheduled start time 7:00 (with two opening bands - Weezer went on about 9:00), but still had to deal with incredible congestion for parking. I approached on I-80 and the people were waiting on the shoulder to make the freeway exit. Pretty dangerous situation, if you ask me… cars zooming past at 80 mph, with confused people not sure where to go. I noticed that some people tried to approach using the frontage road, but the road was closed and a cop was turning people around and so there are just 2 ways to get here: I-80 and route 201 - which had terrible congestion also.

It took me about 45 minutes of crawling along the freeway shoulder to get to the parking area. I noticed on Google maps that this queue extended beyond the curve at about milepost 106… like 2 miles from Saltair. A friend of mine was in this line for over an hour (he got in line after me; he missed one band and some of the second band). I paid $10 for a reserved parking spot, which actually got me really close to the venue, once I was able to arrive. I noticed that there was a far away parking lot, and they were having people park there and ride a shuttle bus from the lot (this might be for those who did not buy a parking pass). After the concert, it looked like the shuttle system was very slow going, with hundreds of people waiting for a shuttle bus to get back to their car. So I am glad that I paid for parking and didn’t need to do the shuttle (assuming that is the situation).

One word of caution… the website where you buy a parking pass says that buying a pass does not guarantee a parking spot. Not sure why they would sell more passes than spots (I didn’t have a problem), but be aware.

Getting out of the venue was also troublesome, but probably to be expected. It took me maybe 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

Overall a great show, and probably worth the hassle with parking, but if you are coming to a large show here just plan ahead and know what you are getting into. I read online about several different people at different shows in the past who didn’t make it to their concert at all because of the parking problems. And, during the concert an announcement was made that people that had parked along the freeway ramps would be towed, and therefore lots of people had to run back to their cars to move them (where to?), so they...

I'm from Boise. I often travel to Montana, Washington, Utah and Oregon for shows, so when an artist is visiting all or multiple of those states on tour I factor in the venue when deciding which gig to buy tickets for. When I searched this venue it seemed nice, the reviews weren't amazing but with 4.4 stars I figured it couldn't have been that bad, so I bought tickets for Jack White's show here on 8/9. I have just a few questions about this venue:

Who is booking for this venue? They must have the persuasion skills of the devil because it's just a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

$5 to park on a dirt lot? There are literally no other parking options and they charge $5 for each car and if you don't have cash you have to hand over your driver's license until you can go in, use their ATM give the cash to a runner who brings in the driver's licenses every 30 minutes or so.

No ventilation outside of opening doors to the back "patio"? Honestly, this is the point I'm most curious and disturbed about. This building is made entirely of wood and there is no airflow at all. No air conditioning, not even fans, the security guards near the front hand out water OCCASIONALLY. It was over 100 degrees outside, god only knows how hot it was inside with a packed house. People were passing out before the show even started... dripping sweat, dying for water ($3 a bottle and lukewarm by halfway through the show) and no relief came outside of opening the doors in hopes of feeling a breeze... dangerous and unethical to host an event without the slightest airflow on days so hot.

It seems security has no interest in throwing aggressive people out? I stood next to a man who could have been my grandfather and a man my age was being very aggressive, trying to get in front of him. Security saw him harassing this man and hitting me with his shoulders attempting to get in front and did nothing, again... dangerous and unethical.

Why is there no-exit strategy for leaving after the show? There's really only one way out which you can exit from the right or left side. Cars are pushing in, people idling waiting for friends, people speeding around people nearly hitting them and no one does anything. There was an accident leaving and it's no wonder why.

Overall, I don't know how this venue passed zoning. Jack White was fantastic but suffering the conditions inside for 5 hours was not worth it. I should have gone to his show in Portland.

Also, I thought, when researching this venue that the site was just being remodeled and that explained the lack of any information or photos about the venue but after attending it's clear they're attempting to avoid people finding out what sort of venue...

I saw jack white here recently. It was absolutely incredible! I think my experience was made 5 stars simply because jack white is so fantastic. The venue it's self is pretty cool but could be improved. I know it's burned down at least once but maybe more? Not sure. If you've ever been out to the great salt lake you know it smells and there are a billion flies. Because it's so close to the lake you can smell it and while waiting in line for hours everyone was being pestered by flies. Not really much you can do about that though. The inside is basically one giant room. I thought that was kinda cool. There are bars upstairs with balcony like places all around. It has open rafters, not sure if that was a design choice or if it's like that for some other reason. The one complaint i have is it is incredibly hot in there. Obviously when you are in a tightly packed crowd it's going to be warm but it seemed like there was no air conditioning at all. Everyone was dripping sweat and getting pretty cranky while waiting for the band. They had a side door open so occasionally you would get some relief from a heavenly breeze but none the less it was hot as hell the whole time. Obviously as soon as the music started everyone forgot about the heat and had a great time. It was a phone free show so before we went in everyone put there phone in these little pouches that couldn't be opened unless you went outside or went to certain areas. I liked this but it was kind of hard to not have access to my phone for so long. It made waiting much harder not knowing the time. I like to take pictures at concerts to show what it was like for me in the crowd but i also hate watching a concert through other people's phone screens. So overall it was nice. Obviously a team of people checked all the instruments and the gear before the show. But there was one dude who was taking forever. He checked this one blue guitar about 5 times. No joke. People started yelling at him but he didn't seem to notice. It is pretty funng now but waiting an extra half hour just so he could quadruple check one guitar was frustrating at the time. Anyway i should probably finish this novel of a review that absolutely no one will read by saying i had the time of my life and would definitely jump at the chance to see...