The Pavilion at Montage Mountain — Attraction in Scranton

I would give a FIVE STAR rating for Train and The Goo Goo Dolls. I want Train and The Goo Goo Dolls to see this negative rating that I am giving for The Pavilion at Montage Mountain, because I purchased these tickets for my mother, for her 65th birthday. She LOVES Train, they are her all time favorite band. She saw them at BB&T Pavilion and Hersheypark Stadium in 2017, and we BOTH like The Goo Goo Dolls. Never had seen The Goo Goo Dolls, yet they were someone that you always just wanted to see, so we figured now was the most perfect time to see two GREAT artists at the same time.

I purchased tickets in Section 103, Row N, seats 1 & 2, and spent over $100 per seat for this concert, and we were on the end of the row, and we were so incredibly close to the stage. I mean you could feel the bass pulsing through your body, and your heart jumping, and your body felt like it was shaking after the show because the bass rocked through your body so so so so much!!! I also purchased Premiere Parking passes for my mother and I, because I suffer from chronic leg pains, and my mother is handicapped, permanently disabled. I searched the internet and found out that their free parking was terrible, and their handicapped was on a first-come, first-serve basis. So I did not take any chances, or spare any expenses, and purchased Premiere Parking, which was in the same lot as ADA Parking, and was closer to the venue.

When we got to the venue parking, after crawling through this hefty line of cars up a 1 lane road. We got to Gate 2, at 6:15pm, or 6:20pm, where they have ADA, VIP, Premiere, and another form of Premium parking that I can not remember the name of, the sheriffs on duty making the lines of traffic move, as well as the venue staff, claimed they filled to capacity this Gate 2 lot, and were not going to honor my Premiere Parking, and therefore did not honor it, and the sheriffs threatened that if we did not move, that they would forcefully make us move, hinting that they would arrest us on the spot. So we had to go all the way up to the free parking, and that was a MILE away from the venue. When we made it down to the road, the sheriff stationed there asked if my mother and I were okay, my mother had to stop and couldn't continue to walk due to her various medical conditions, and we told that to the sheriff, and the sheriff was offering to take us down whenever he finished, and that would be a while. And it took us a half an hour to toddle down to that spot, so by that point it was after 7pm. and then they got a utility cart to take us down, but by the time we got down, got into the venue, it was halfway through The Goo Goo Dolls set, it was so late, I honestly could not believe it. It was terrible. I only got to see HALF of the set for The Goo Goo Dolls, and Train, and my mother and I were in pain the entire concert. We are still in SEVERE pain until this day and suffering with our various conditions and illnesses. The staff had no care what-so-ever, you had to threaten to call ADA on them to get them to even take us back up to our car, after the staff that brought us down said it would be simple to request a ride back up after the show, well that staff member was completely incorrect. They had no care what-so-ever about anything other than getting themselves out of the venue and home.

It was a terrible experience of a venue, of what otherwise could have been a fantastic show. The show itself was absolutely amazing, what I got to see of it at least.

I recommend that anyone thinking about going to any concert or artist of their liking, to please think twice before they go to The Pavilion at Montage Mountain. I would recommend finding your favorite artist/band at another venue, and paying to go there. Especially if you have anyone in your group that is handicapped or has an injury/chronic illness of any sort. DO NOT GO THERE! THEY ARE TERRIBLE AND HAVE HORRIBLE...

The people saying they oversell parking, no - that's incorrect.

What they do is not check/scan the paid parking SO, that means anyone can park in the lot for paid parking and they don't need a handicapped placard so they can just say they are handicapped and take up the parking spaces so whoever paid for it can't fit!

Ridiculous policy and I saw many do this and those who know do it every time they go and told me so. I paid for parking, but they never even checked it. If someone breaks a leg and needs it, they could easily obtain a Dr.'s note to park there.

Since I knew there were parking issues, I arrived early and that is the only suggestion to those who don't want to be in a huge line to get to parking and actually want a space. You can park along the road to the gate to wait for it to open. We took food and planned to do that and also planned to wait to exit. We waited in the lot afterwards for around 45 minutes before it was a bit more cleared out and then, it was slow but moving constantly. The 10 minute drive to the hotel took maybe 15 minutes. Not bad.

People who say it sounds great, I have to say, I was under the canopy in front section/center and also in the pit and I thought it was just extremely distorted. I could barely make out anything the band was saying. It's odd though because when I play back the videos, they are clear as day.

Staff were nice, but it was super confusing for where you needed to be. No good signage for which line was which. If you bought fast lane, you had to ask, and security had no idea. A LiveNation person finally told us which line to go in. Then, once we were let in, they didn't have ticket scanners ready and didn't know who even had them. I also had Club access and I guess they were to scan that also (I asked and was told no- the Club scans it) but when I went to the Club, she didn't know anything about scanning the ticket, so I showed her my phone, she waved us right in and gave a band for it.

Another thing that I didn't understand - I had seats and a pit ticket. For the pit, they gave a wristband. For my seat, they gave nothing and we were told we needed to show tickets each time we went to that area. This is a problem because the tickets were on my phone and I wasn't always going to be with my husband. I needed to send him a screenshot of the ticket. I guess they do this because of the lawn area, but if that's the case, they need to give a different wristband for the seats. It turned out to be not a big deal because she recognized us after about 3 times showing her the ticket but I could also see people buying 1 seat, then sending a pic of that to someone in the lawn so they could just get in if there were empty seats w/o paying for that. I did see people come up there and sit and then have to move when the actual seat holders came, so this must happen and there's a cheap way to fix it with wristbands.

I would go to the venue again, but it would have to be a top priority band for me to do so and Godsmack/Staind were :) I've just never seen these repeated issues at any other venue I've been to (Acrisure/Hershey/Bryce Jordon and some of the other smaller venues). No organization and the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

There are easy fixes to these issues, but since the issues have been going on for so long, I don't see anything changing.

Almost forgot, drinks are...

Zero Stars- Came here for the BB/5FDP concert. Expected to see the show rain or shine, but they wouldn't allow people in when it was storming. They moved up the time of the concert by an hour, but no communications were sent. My sis who bought hers that day, still said 7pm on the website. All websites: Ticketmaster, LiveNation, and seat geek said 7pm, but someone told me that 2 months ago they announced the change??? I double checked all of my e-mails and nothing. That's just the tip. We were on track to get there by 5:30, traffic to the parking lot was absurd. Directed to park in a lot that is 3.5 miles away from the venue (a hike up the mountain if you walk on a very narrow road). We were parked by 6:15pm. The first set of shuttles (yellow school buses) leave as we are getting out of our car. There is a massive line forming for the next round of shuttles. We get in line and wait, only for people who just parked at the top of the lot to rush the buses as empty ones come in. No organization and no one stopped all of those people from cutting. Then, after they are filled, the buses don't leave. No communication as to why they aren't leaving. We all have twitter and Facebook, only to find out slowly that the show started at 6, Nothing More is cancelled, and that maybe they are starting back up at 9. Around 7:15pm, the buses leave- still no communication. We see on Facebook that the show started back up at 8:07pm. We are still standing in line in the rain for a bus to show up to maybe make it to the show. A bus finally shows up at 9:23pm. While on the bus, we stop at another parking lot. Those people said this is the first shuttle they've seen all night. We make it up the mountain to the front gate at 10pm. Our bus passed several cars trying to make it to the venue. There is still no information from anyone including the bus drivers, social media, or any of the "sheriff's" officers. We rush into the venue as swarms of concert goers are leaving. No signs as to where to go or what's going on. All of the portable bathrooms were empty of toilet paper and hand sanitizer- all of them. We make it to will call to try to get information on refunds- they are all wearing LiveNation polo shirts. This is the first employee we've seen all night. They say they have nothing for us and there is nothing they can do. Not even a "parking validation" to prove our situation. They say the best bet would be to go in so our tickets are scanned at that time for proof. We make it to the pavilion around 10:20p as BB is about to start. The pavilion and lawn are absolutely packed. I don't understand how we passed so many people on their way up here, passed so many people leaving, and we know a lot of people gave up while we were waiting for shuttles, and the Pavilion was this packed. For those people who said to show up early, I don't know if they realize they left people waiting for shuttles in the designated parking lots. Not sure if I want to make this gamble again for the...