I've loved this venue and have been here for quite a few shows over the past 3 years. But my experience at The National's show on Nov. 19 was absolutely atrocious. I spent 30 additional dollars on 2 Fast Passes for the show, arrived 2 hours early to find a well organized fan group, all with fast passes, numbering and lining up before the show. Once the Venue Crew began to come out and prepare for the entry, it became an absolute mess. They moved us into a line by the door and slowly began scanning first our fast pass and then our tickets. The woman scanning our tickets told us that we would have to scan our tickets again at another line we would have to stand in. See, we would have to stand in line outside, scan our fast pass and ticket, get inside, go to another table at the far end of the venue, stand in line, scan our ticket again, and get a wristband that would then allow us to get into the pit area. Absolutely insane. Why couldn't we receive our wristband while waiting in the first line? Once she moved through the line, she began yelling across the line to the doors where apparently the crew working the doors had no idea that the doors were, in fact, supposed to open. No walkies or anything to communicate, just yelling that went unnoticed. Once the doors opened, the venue crew began trying to scan our tickets again at the door, this caused a massive backup and finally was relieved when the woman scanning our tickets in line reached the door to tell the crew we did not need to scan our tickets here and go to the pit wristband table. Insanity ensued, people began running out of line. This caused every worker inside to start yelling at people running to stop, venue staff called everyone "children", which just seemed ridiculous seeing as how the issue they were confronting was THEIR OWN DOING. Finally, once you reached the pit wristband table, you had to stand in another line to receive your wristband, only after your ticket was scanned again. This was an absolute mess, it made the venue and staff look as if they had never held a concert before, and came close to making the fast pass a complete waste of money. Toyota is a great venue, but after this show and the way the staff "organized" the evening and spoke to customers, it leaves an awful taste in my mouth and makes me really reconsider recommending the venue and the fast pass...
Read moreI was harassed by one security Security Guard for majority of the show. I have pictures of him and please view the full video. I also have a picture of the line and me on one side of the line. I hope you read all the way to the end. By the way, The Roots were absolutely awesome but, I was purposely targeted and harassed by security. I have a video of this man harassing me one of the six times that he tried to intentionally upset me while I was enjoying the show and kept threatened me to get his supervisor and kick me out. I was not doing anything wrong. I was on my side of the line. I paid for the second row from the stage, and my seat was the end seat. At first, he had an Asian woman come to me before the show started to ask me, “ if I was supposed to be at that seat.” I replied that I paid for that seat. Once the show started, he came to me and asked me the same thing, which is strange because I seen her go back to him to report what I said! This man chose to target me, saying that I was dancing in the aisle. When I turned around and looked, there were hundreds of people in the aisle dancing in places they were not supposed to be. I was where I was supposed to be. Most of them dancing in the isle were men, but he chose me…. The woman. I was on my side of the line and at my chair the entire time. I begged this man to stop harassing me. The third time he came to me, I replied to him stating, “Sir, Like a good slave I’m staying in my place. Please leave me alone.” He replied… “Good! you do that!” As a result of feeling profiled and attacked, I decided to record him by the fifth time he decided to harass just me. He went on to get his Manager when I started recording, and his manager agreed with me. The manager told me that this security guard can be an “issue”(his word of choice is not appropriate for this review). After that, the security guard never came back. However, by this time… The show was more than halfway over. I cannot believe that there are people that work as security at the The pavilion at Toyota music factory that are like that. I keep wanting to buy seasons tickets for this place because they have excellent seating and excellent shows, but I have not because I am utterly afraid of being attacked repeatedly by their security again. Who pays all that money to be attacked...
Read moreI've been here a few times now since my initial review and I still groan with displeasure when I find out a concert I want to attend is at that venue. The best thing it has going for it is cleanliness and newness and even then, The costs outweigh these "perks" i finally decided to try the flavored cocktail shaker drinks and had the most disgusting spicy margarita. It tasted like spicy dirty dishwater and was so weak I didn't even get a little buzzed. The nachos were basically just all toppings with a handful of sogged out chips. They were so bad we wanted to just ask for more plain chips. Corn dog was decent. Air-conditioned lobby area and bathrooms were both very clean but were out of toilet paper before the main band went on and locks on the doors were installed weird so they don't latch unless you lift your door up. Very VERY expensive drinks and very few options like shockingly high prices for drinks, strongly suggest you pregame this one. Food quality is good but so expensive. Sound quality sucked on the lawn as there aren't ANY speakers past the pavilion, you could have regular conversations without screaming. You can hear every word of conversation around you over the main band playing. They never turned on the screens for the opening act so you really couldn't see anything from the lawn. They have a wall that is perfect sitting/trip over height, yet have asshole security guards policing it to not let people sit on it. They should definitely just put up a fence or build the wall higher. Dos Equis is definitely the better lawn for views and sound quality. After reading reviews on Reddit about the parking garage. We spent a little extra $ to valet our car so we wouldn't have to worry about it. It was very quick and efficient. The location also has lots of restaurants around and was very easy to get in and out of. Valet is definitely the way to go for parking and we literally NEVER valet anywhere. The parking garage is crazy...
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