Meadow Brook Amphitheatre — Attraction in Rochester Hills

I had lawn seats for a highly sought after, sold out show (Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service 20th anniversary tour). My advice may not be applicable to less intense performances.

First: the bathroom situation is ridiculous and they need to address it urgently. The lines were 20-40 minutes long for women. There’s no reason this should be such a huge issue in 2023. That is why it lost two stars and honestly if the performance hadn’t been so phenomenal it would have lost more.

Bring with you: Kleenex to use as TP in a pinch, hand sanitizer, pre-downloaded tickets. Consider bringing: blanket for lap or lawn, chair for lawn (though they do rent them as well), small plastic bag for your merch or trash, poster protector for concert posters.

I also heard the parking situation was very bad as the concert time approached. Don’t wait until the last minute! Parking in other area lots (I’ve heard by student housing or in a neighborhood across the street) will also work. To get out of the parking lot you don’t have to go out the way you entered. You can drive out the back right to the road. Check your satellite map before you go!

We got to parking when it opened and it was so empty we almost thought we were in the wrong place. Parking is in the grassy field by the light posts with numbers on them. We lined up at the box office entrance when we saw people starting to line up (a little more than an hour before the doors opened). This was the coldest part of the evening; the wind really gusts in the open space where the line forms. The workers came out and helped split the line into the correct number of security stations in a calm, organized fashion. They also told us about the bag requirements and how low to the ground seats must be.

Getting in through security required putting our bags in a little red fast food serving basket, emptying our pockets of keys and phones to go through the metal detectors, and passing blankets and chairs around a table. After security they had workers scanning tickets on phones. People around us were able to bring in small items in their bags, including vape pens.

We got our lawn seats and then hit up the bathrooms located to the right of the stage at the top of the hill. Immediately after that we visited the merch tents. We got concessions before they got busy. They also came around selling popcorn, beer, water, and lemonade.

It rained a little while we were there. Ponchos, rain coats, and a blanket kept us comfortable on our lawn chairs. Some people brought umbrellas. The grass got somewhat slippery in the light rain. If you are in the lawn, wear sturdy shoes like sneakers that will keep your feet dry and grip the grass well enough. We put our concert posters in plastic sleeves they provided (they ended up running out before the show was over).

When the show was over we packed up our stuff and held it for the encore. We were ready to leave when the lights came up.

I really wished there was more information available before we went to the show. I hope...

Sadly, the reviewers who spoke about the sound system and the parking were spot on. First it took 40 minutes to go about 1/2 mile just to get in. didnt know how much parking was or if there would be food by looking at the web prior to going. $15.00 is pretty steep for parking on grass and waiting forever to do it.They did not let us take two bottles of water in but people brought coolers in? Didn't really see that on the ticket or web. 1/2 the people in the pavilion were not seated until 15 minutes into the headliner- very distracting-the talk was that it was a traffic jam. There were people on the lawn chanting to the comedian "we can't hear you"- we sat about 1/2 way up from the stage under pavilion and we had a hard time hearing some times too. Leaving was a cluster **. They didn't open up all the roads so we sat without moving for an hour. There was one guy with a flashlight waving cars to go straight-which that was the only way you could go;( Just before him about 100yards away were 8 lanes of cars trying to merge into one lane. He wasn't helping that to go smoothly. I walked all the way to the gentleman-we were at the end of line and people were shouting for me to go direct traffic!! I inquired as to what to do if we wanted to get on university drive and he kindly pointed in the opposite direction I asked him if we could take the road right behind him that had cones on it that led to university- you could clearly see cars going by but not jammed up.. He said no they had to empty the front parking lot out first. After we made it out onto the road cars started using both lanes the right (east bound) and the left lane(west bound) to all go east. Then we had to merge again. I'm not an expert in traffic control but I have been to other venues that are bigger and they all do a much better job with a lot more vehicles-someone needs to get their sound system and parking updated-maybe pave it and let the ADULTS park their own car-We will not be back any time soon I am also sending this to the comedian so that maybe he may think about changing to a better run venue.The Comedian was Great and it was a beautiful night but that had nothing to do with MBMF, I would not...

Saw Jim Gaffigan there on Friday. Jim Gaffigan was awesome and none of this review reflects on him or his performance which was hilarious.

The problem (and if I could give ZERO stars I would) is with Meadow Brook Music Festival. Their sound system SUCKS! Their parking system (in and out) SUCKS! Their over-selling lawn seats SUCKS! Their staff SUCKS!

This place was wall-to-wall people who wanted to have a good time. Let's start in a parking cluster that took over an hour to enter and leave (and yes, we got there over an hour early!). Understaffed in the lots and clearly they have no clue how to open gates to speed up the operation for people coming and going.

The seats were 100% filled, but people were filling in the venue over an hour late! Because of the cluster with parking! This pulls you right out of a show where you are constantly standing up and sitting down to let people in.

The lawn was so over-sold that you couldn't see grass anywhere and this brings us to the biggest problem...

MEADOW BROOK'S SOUND SYSTEM SUCKS!

People in the lawn could not hear a good portion of the show. I was in a seat close up and I could not hear a good portion of the show. This was partially because the sound system sucks and partially because people in the lawn were yelling, "Turn up the sound!"

Meadow Brook...you have some serious work to do to improve your venue before next summer because unless I read that changes are being made, I am not coming back and I will be sure to tell people the same. You must have made a fortune at this one night alone so pay for more parking staff and better speakers. Based on reviews I have read about other shows at your venue it is clear that these problems were not a one night freak occurence.

Jim Gaffigan, you're great and I'm sorry if any of the problems that night (like when the sound screwed up and blared music in the middle of your act)...