KettleHouse Amphitheater — Local services in East Missoula

I don't know that I have ever been more disappointed in a venue. We drove here from Spokane to see the July 18 Sheryl Crow concert. How do I loathe thee Kettlehouse Amphitheater? Let me count the ways.

First, let's get this out of the way. Aesthetics-wise this is a spectacular venue. It's just gorgeous. It's also a very intimate facility in that all the views, even the general admission areas, are reasonably close to the stage.

Getting to the facility is fairly easy. There is a shuttle service from somewhere in Missoula if you're into that sort of thing. The facility itself is located near the end of a long residential street. There is a small lot at the facility that charges $5. There is a single road into and out of that lot and you don't get to choose your spot. You will probably be in that lot for a minimum half hour if you leave with the bulk of the patrons after the show. I saw one person on social media say it took them an hour to get out of that parking lot. I believe them. After scouting that out we decided to park on the residential street. If you do this make sure you're up to speed on your parallel parking technique. Our walk from our parking space to the facility was exactly one mile. We arrived 15 minutes after the gates opened.

Once we got onto the grounds we had to get in line to get in. That line was at least a quarter mile long. It took 35 minutes from the time we got in line to inside the venue.

Our seats were on the left side of the venue and directly underneath a standing room area of the beer garden. That was awesome! It got packed when the show started. At least five drinks were spilled from that group over our heads. Plus there were people spitting and throwing food at the people below them. We also saw two altercations up there.

Now this begs the question, where is the venue security for all of this? Well, there were plenty of people wearing event staff shirts but we never saw them do much. The show was well underway before any of them got the idea to clear the aisle adjacent to our seats. I did not see a single uniformed person in the venue.

Food? I saw only one place that sold food at the venue. It was on the opposite side from were we were and we weren't standing in that line.

Do you get thirsty at shows? You get treated well if you are drinking alcohol. You get cold beverages served in cans. Drinking a soda? That's not very sporting of you to do at a facility named after a brewery. You get a non-lidded cup with a few ice cubes. Water? Yeah, that's room temp and they take the lid off. I mention this because they did have a couple of people walking around selling beverages and once they had a single bottle of cold water to sell (the only non alcoholic drink in their tray) and the lid stayed with the bottle.

Maybe that's all just as well because after you have a few drinks you may have to go to the bathroom. You can't got to the bathroom here because there aren't any. There's maybe 30-40 j-jons to accommodate the thousands of people that are at the venue. At night when you shut the door of that port-a-potty you might as well be in a cave because there's no lighting in that area. Do you like to wash your hands after you go? I do. There were hand washing stations that had soap, paper towels and water that dribbled out a drop at a time from these faucet like thingies.

Thankfully we had reserved seats because the general admission areas were grossly over sold. I felt bad for the person that had to deal with that. Based on what I saw I would never but general admission tickets for a show at this venue.

We are not going to be back at the Kettlehouse Amphitheater unless it's a show that we can't get anywhere else and even then it's got to be somebody we really want to see. It's too bad because it's a scenic, intimate venue that has tremendous potential.

The pics below document how far away we were in the line to get in, the proximity of the beer garden people to our seats (it was way more packed once the show started), and how badly over sold the general...

I am soooo disappointed with Kettlehouse ... We arrived early to the venue as it was our first time there and didn't know what to expect.

The venue is easy to find. Parking was surprisingly easy. The lot was organized and well staffed with attendants.

The concert (Lindsey Stirling) started almost 40 minutes late... Normally not that big of a deal, but we had purchased tickets to sit on the lawn area of the amphitheater. They had WATERED the grass! The ground was absolutely saturated! Who thought that was a good idea?! We had brought 2 blankets to sit on and doubled them over and placed the one on the other... So that's four layers of cloth... Our butts were immediately soaked. 🤬

We had bought a parking pass to park in the Kettlehouse lot because I didn't know the area. Again, getting into the lot was great ... Probably the only positive thing I have to say about the venue (Lindsey was amazing!). There was a school down the street that was selling parking. I wish we'd have parked there!

There was ample food and beverages available inside the venue, along with plenty of portable toilets.

The concert ran till 10:30... We were some of the first cold, wet, soggy-bottomed people to our cars...and then we sat... For an entire HOUR! Nobody moved... They were running shuttle buses, and apparently from where we were parked it looked like they weren't letting any cars leave till the buses were done. We didn't move till 11:30 🤬 ... And then had to drive 2 hours to get home.

And the marijuana... My God! Signs everywhere about not bringing any of your own food or drink in... They even made folks empty out their waterbottles and then refill them once inside... But by God you could apparently toke up all you wanted! I've watched security haul dozens of pot smokers out of other concerts... Not at Kettlehouse! It was blatant... Even rude.

It's probably a good thing we had to sit in the parking lot for an hour before operating a motor vehicle... They may have actually done us a favor there! I was literally getting a buzz from all the smoke (I didn't have a drop off alcohol as the designated driver)... People had small children there! How about getting some security? 🤬

The performance was great. Sound quality was excellent for an outdoor venue. The stage set was great. However, NOT a positive experience with the...

Honestly, my friend was harassed and racially profiled for the first concert of the season and was removed before the headliner even came on. He had stayed in Missoula an extra day to come see Brett Young with me. We were one of the first humans in as we arrived at 540 pm and the doors didn't open until 6 pm. He had been sober all day and we grabbed some drinks before heading to the lawn (he grabbed a beer; I had the cocktail) to stake out our spot. It was a bit windy so as I was trying to put down the towel, he fell on the side to hold it down and we started laughing at how hard it was to put the towel down. A security guard immediately (white older man that I'm kicking myself I didn't get his name) came over and said to my friend that he had too much to drink and took his wrist band (his beer was full) and we had done nothing but put down a towel for crying out loud. We weren't slurring, spilling, or anything conducive to being so drunk he needed to get his wristband pulled. BUT not trying to cause a fuss, my friend gave it up. Then we bought french fries, chicken strips, and a sammich and he only drank the waters we had ALSO purchased with our beverages. I went and bought another round during the opening act, about 90 min later, and handed him a beer while I sat down. The security guard from earlier had followed me back to our towel and watched me hand my friend the beer and take a sip (A SIP) and promptly said he needed to be removed because he was too drunk and wasn't allowed to stay since he had already issued a warning earlier. We were literally sitting on a towel quietly watching the performance, not at all belligerent, minding our own business. I said it was my fault for handing him the beverage in the first place, but he wouldn't listen. I have NEVER experienced anything like that in my life; not only was my friend racially profiled for his skin color but that guard harassed us with how closely he fixated on us and only us. He didn't seem to care about anyone else around. He walked by our towel almost every five minutes. We did nothing wrong and were minding our own business. I tried to talk to the supervisor but no one would budge. Honestly, such a horrible experience and I've never been so disappointed in how my friend was treated and everyone around us who allowed...