Treasure Island Amphitheater — Attraction in Red Wing

We’d waited years to go to a concert here after it was rescheduled. Now that we’ve been, I doubt we will ever return.

Simply getting in the vicinity of the venue was a nightmare. Miles away the traffic became bumper-to-bumper, and I think it took us 45 minutes to go 4 miles. (And this was not even the last road by the grill/bar that is close to the venue.)

Once there, we were directed to park on a grass lot. Despite knowing there were going to be 16,000 attendees, they did not bother mowing.

Inside the venue the seats were fine, but midway through the concert the portable toilets were out of paper and sanitizer, and the hand washing stations were down to faint trickles of water.

Due to rain, the concert was 2 hours and 15 minutes late in starting, so we left about 40 minutes before the end since we had to drive home and we remembered the nightmare getting in. Once at our car, we went to what was supposed to be the exit aisle. We were asked to turn around, so we did. We stopped about 20 feet from where we’d parked and just idled for over an hour.

There was no attempt to direct traffic or have any sort of organization or equity of wait times. Close to the road, the traffic controllers were moving things along, and the cones were clear. But inside the parking lot was horrendous. About 15 minutes into our hour-long stop, two traffic controllers walked into view. Instead of doing anything to move things along or help those of us who were parked right beside them for 45 minutes, their response was, “having fun yet?!” when we asked what was going on. They’d been by our car twirling their unlit batons and talking for the entire 45 minutes they were in view. When the man asked me if I was having fun, I replied, “no, I’m not. We’ve seen you stand there talking the entire time even though we’ve been sitting here while there is no organization and you could be helping.” When I said that I’d seen them doing absolutely nothing that whole 45 minutes, the woman said, “well, I’m gonna go do some work then” and stormed off.

I have video of those “traffic controllers” doing nothing in uniform (though I missed recording their snarky replies), and I plan on forwarding that to the company.

I understand that there are protected lands/wetlands in the area, so certain infrastructure is impossible. However, having absolutely no direction in the lot and making a bad situation even worse by employing bad (and in this case, quite useless) employees is unforgivable.

TL; DR. 16,000 attendees, no TP or water, employees who seemed to mock us while literally standing in one place doing nothing even though they were...

First time here for a show, and I was a bit apprehensive after reading reviews here and elsewhere on the internet. We arrived fairly early and chose a parking spot in the furthest corner of the parking lot, near the suspected exit (no signage letting you know where the exit was). It was the right spot, and we had no problems getting out of the parking lot after the show, though the traffic does move very slowly until you get through the next town (Hastings?). As a female I was a little upset by their "strict no-bag policy", especially because there is a sign outside the entrance to the amphitheatre that states they do actually allow a very small bag (3.5 x 8 inches or something like that)🙄 I bought a bag at the merch table and put all my stuff I had shoved in my pockets in it; you can't bring a bag but you can buy one. There's a nice area with a bunch of food trucks and beverages and the lines did not appear to be too long anywhere except the merch table. I would recommend getting in that line right away if you want a shirt or something. They will take the cap from your water bottle, and we actually had to pour our waters into plastic cups because we were seated near the front. As others have mentioned, the seats are VERY small and even when standing there is not much room. We had really good seats, and I could see everything happening on stage and they have big screens for people further back. Very cool light show, did not have a problem with bugs. I like how they're not afraid to turn the volume up there, the music was loud and sounded great. Overall, a great night seeing one of my favorite...

The show itself was nice, but the venue has major issues. For starters, while it sounds nice to set a show well outside the cities, in practice the infrastructure is not up to that kind of traffic and you'll be backed up on country roads for ages. The parking is barely adequate, even with a large undeveloped field opened to vehicles on the side, and while they were well organized getting people in, they bordered on no organization for getting people out, leading to far worse backups lasting 'til past midnight (concert was done at, like, 11).

The food on site is also not up to the challenge of a major event, so they supplemented with overpriced food trucks; you'll want to just get something on the way.

The grandiosely named "amphitheater" is, essentially, a fenced in outdoor area with tightly packed stadium seating.

BUT, for all that I have to complain about, I should mention security was fast, friendly, and professional moving people through, as were ticket takers; if car traffic was horrific, foot traffic flowed in and out quite smoothly. The place was clean, so that's a plus, and they didn't place seating anywhere you couldn't see the stage (as some other venues do and sell it as cheap seats), the screens were well placed, unobstructive, and functioned clearly in daylight too, and if their bathrooms were your very basic mass porta-potty setup, they at least have enough of them.

All in all, very average. Low points, high points, meh points. Venue has some inherent issues that will not be addressed tomorrow, but staff does all in their power to make what they have clean...