Utilita Arena Birmingham West Car Park — Local services in Birmingham

I came here for a concert. In terms of parking and accessing the site - brilliant spot. However, the venue infrastructure, service, and prices let me down. The queues to enter were chaotic and with how overwhelmed the security appeared, checks weren’t thorough. Being an arena, I expected the drinks prices to be high, but this particular venue took the mick at £11 a pint of flat Madri. It was also the case that cans could be bought on the arena main floor which were slightly ‘cheaper’, but the service was poor with customers needing to guide the young lad on how to decant into plastics without the head spilling over. The lighting, sound and performance were great, but given the toilet situation it’s a wonder how we managed to capture it. The toilet queues were very long and intersected the main concourse snaking into the bar queues. Barely anyone could move, pushing and shoving like cattle that resembled the security situation. Not sure how the venue would cope in a fire. There were a small number of positives, but it was a shame that the overall experience was let down by mostly infrastructure issues. This needs a rethink considering the current...

We reserved parking ahead of time in the West car park (£17.50) for a concert, but when we got there, is was £12.50 for those who hadn't reserved parking! Apparently the benefits are it's close the venue, the West car park is for reserved parking only (not when we went) and you don't have to queue to use a parking machine because you tell them your registration beforehand. The car park itself is not ideal. Some of the spaces have pillars in them, so you cannot reverse all the way back, which means some larger cars cannot get around in one. And it is surprisingly difficult to navigate on foot. Like others, we were wondering around confused by the signage to get...

Absolute nightmare of a carpark. Booked parking online as I have blue badge so need accessible parking. Upon arrival the attendee said all spaces taken, and doesn't matter if you book your space. Was total free for all carnage. Good luck if you found a space. Then you need to navigate out to the music venue. Not easy when there's literally no signs to show direction! We walked around aimlessly for 20mins with another group of Losties. Eventually found way out. On way back good luck!! I could see my car but couldn't get to it. Doors to floor5 were locked. OMG the frustration! Took nearly an hour queuing to get out afterwards. I'm never parking...