The Famous Venue — Attraction in Portsmouth

The owner of the venue contacted me and clarified some things. He said, "Your review on The Famous Venue isn't accurate. The restaurant on the first floor is called Olde Towne Public House and is a completely different business. The venue upstairs is a rental venue that rented the space to a company called little mania wrestling. They over booked their event not the venue. The venue operator just stopped the door because of the over booking. Obviously this is something you should be mad about. The tickets and the sales of the tickets do not go to The Famous Venue. They go to little mania wrestling and if you really wish to get your money back you will need to contact them. The fire marshal did come and the venue wasn't over capacity all fire codes were followed as needed to be and they were glad we stopped the door. This company was informed of the capacity and I honestly think with changing the venue there was a discrepancy that they missed on their ticket platform and I don't think they meant to over book it." Thank you for reaching out to me with that information.

My previous review: "Went earlier tonight for a wrestling event only to be frustrated, and ultimately just shrugged at. That event was handled extremely unprofessionally. They oversold The Famous Venue. More than 150 of us stood outside for almost an hour going nowhere at a snails pace. They had only 1 guy working the door. Noone from the venue came out to inform anyone of what was going on. We finally got inside into the downstairs bar. After we meandered our way toward the back, looking for something that might hold a wrestling match, not a bar, we all walked into the kitchen. Then a waitress came after us and said the entrance for upstairs was toward the front but that they had closed the door because they oversold the event. I went to front, found the door that was shut; opened it and as my group went upstairs (hoping to find someone for a refund), most of the bar emptied out and followed us upstairs. Turns out they had closed the door awhile ago and didn't tell anybody. All those people were standing around trying to figure out the same as we were. We went upstairs; zero venue presence. Absolutely nobody to talk to. And the upstairs was slam packed. There was no way to even see the wrestling ring. Now even the stairs were packed. And everyone was asking the same thing. What's going on? Maybe we should get a refund. etc. So we asked around for a manager downstairs. The bar manager has nothing to do with the event going on upstairs. That's all we got. Bar staff downstairs unrelated to upstairs. Only person related to the event was the sole security guy out front waving a metal detector over people. And nobody from the venue told him to stop because they oversold the event so he just kept letting in more and more confused people who already had tickets. We walked back out to our car, passing a line just as long as when we first arrived. Tried telling everyone what had happened, but we don't work for the venue. Some rando saying it's a total disorganized sh#t show doesn't really come across as official like a person that works there apologizing and explaining. We bought our tickets a week in advance and arrived :45 minutes early. This was extremely frustrating. That was my first experience at The Famous Venue and definitely the last. I hope Evenbrite refunds all those people that...

We booked The Famous Venue for our 40th high school class reunion AKA Sneakerball Prom -I.C.Norcom Class of 1984. This venue is beautiful, vintage, and bears the name of a very prominent store in Portsmouth history. The reunion committee came early and was able to get everything set up and decorated with plenty of time for the event. Teddy and Johnny were both there and were very helpful with our set up. Meghan handled the bar throughout the night and was an awesome bartender. So much goes into planning an event like this prior to the event, day of the event, during the event, and clean up after the event. The Famous Venue exceeded my expectations, definitely 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!! I would highly recommend them for any event in your future: birthday parties, bridal showers, weddings, even celebration of life! Thanks Teddy for making this an...

DJ'd for a sold out BJJ event. Owner was amazing, was super helpful when audio problems came up, gave a real personal feel. Would back him up any day. Bar and staff were phenomenal. Super cool lighting system, had never used but had a great time making the event come alive with strobes and pre designed light patterns, using a touch screen laptop. Having never done lights, I felt like an absolute pro. Sound was excellent, plenty of inputs for any DJ or audio tech. Facilities across the board, beautiful. Elevator for easy access. Would absolutely recommend...