Sandler Center for the Performing Arts — Attraction in Virginia Beach

This venue is the worst. I have attended multiple dance competitions here over the years. While the facility is beautiful, the staff is incredibly rude. I understand they are trying to manage a lot of people, however, the way these women interact with the public is completely unacceptable! Last night I was attending another dance competition for my daughter. This particular dance competition allows the audience to take pictures. It is CLEARLY announced at the beginning that you may take as many photos as you want. The only rules are no video recording and no flash. Again this is announced by the MC of the competition staff. Well, my daughter's dance team was on the stage performing, and one of the Sandler Center's staff runs over and starts screaming at us that we are not allowed to take pictures. Mind you this is while our girls are on stage. She lectures us about "rules" of the dance competition, all of which were completely incorrect. I missed the entire performance of my child, while this woman was fussing at us, even though we were doing absolutely nothing wrong. After the dance we get up to meet our girls (which is what you do at a dance comp) and I thanked the woman for causing the parents to miss our children's performance. She then proceeded to tell me I was "being difficult." My inner Karen came out and I immediately went to the director of the dance competition to verify I WAS able to take pictures (I was) and then to management of the Sandler Center! Please make sure your staff is aware of the "rules" of the dance competition you are hosting. Each one is different. Secondly please train your staff on how to appropriately interact with the public. I understand there are "difficult" people out there, but I am certainly not one of them. I was just a parent trying to watch my daughter do what she loves and the moment was ruined by an INCREDIBLY rude staff member!! All she would have needed to do was say something like "ma'am I don't think you are allowed to take photos, but let me go find out from the competition to make sure." An incredibly frustrating moment. I hope we never have to dance at a competition at the Sandler...

Very disappointing, but perhaps it was for the type of show they were hosting. Not sure they're best suited for comedian acts. We're used to enjoying beverages and food while laughing with big name comedians. We gave this a try for the Drew Lynch performance and were unsure what we walked into. The concession lines were very long, for a very small concession stand. Someone that worked there came over and advised us there was a concession on the 2nd floor too, so we went up there to be met by an even longer line! The concessions were very disappointing, I've had better at the local ice skating rink. Stale pretzels and snickers bars, along with 3 beer choices and wine (they were already out of some). The worse part was after purchasing our beverages and pretzels, we were told we couldn't bring it into the auditorium. We had to stand outside and eat/drink as fast as we could to make it in. The catch is, you can purchase their $8 sippy cup for your drink, on top of your drink in order to bring that in. When we went into the auditorium, an usher greeted us and walked us to our seats where someone was already sitting. We just kind of looked at them until they moved, then as soon as we sat down they tried to get us to move back so their boyfriends could sit with them. When we declined, they squeezed the 4 of them into 2 seats. 2 rows behind us, 2 girls were wasted, and loud finally an usher asked them to get it together. The staff there was extremely kind and friendly and that is the only positive. Don't think we will ever return, it was not very much fun at all. Suggestions for improvement would be, seats with cupholders, the ability to bring drinks/food into the auditorium, and better...

The staff working the event I attended could not have been any better. Especially Lynn, that was the usher in our section. From the woman handing out bags for our wet umbrellas to the gentleman that held the door as I exited...we were treated like royalty. However our experience sort of ruined the the ballet for us. We were part of a group and picked up our tickets at Will Call and were taken to our section. Only to be told other people were already sitting in them. Lynn said she would try to get this figured out. She provided me with her folding chair to sit on( she saw I am disabled) and my granddaughter sat on stairs until intermission. Lynn then took us back to the Box Office and we waited while several people discussed it. Someone eventually said a check had found our seats were occupied by people that had tickets for seats further into the row. We returned to the Balcony and sat in our seats. Intermission was over and we didn't get a drink. Surely this isn't the first time something like this has happened. I'm not sure why it took more than half of the performance to solve the situation and why no one that identified as management didn't speak to us and offer something like a free concession drink or free seat upgrade for our next visit. It was the staff working the floor that got the four stars not my...