** update - we stuck it out and finally made it to the front of the line at 12am! 🤯 a few of us in line had to start policing people trying to cut in because we had all been waiting way too long to let that keep happening. They didn’t listen and continued to stand in front, thankfully staff finally told them to go to the end. 2 hours later unfortunately.

PLEASEE find a better system! I know it’s not easy to manage a big group of people, but If the line was roped off it would have been SO much easier for staff to monitor who was cutting in, rather than trying to tell a group of 80 drunk people to line up in 2’s over and over 😩 the real kicker was that when we finally got upstairs, we saw that there was a lot of space for more people up there. Unless the floor and how much weight it can support is a concern, there should have been at least 20 more people that went upstairs when we did. I’ve seen the Kings Head PACKED upstairs on numerous occasions. What gives?! Felt frustrated leaving there tonight. Too bad 😔

Writing this review while standing in line to get upstairs at the King’s Head. I’ve waited in line to get into the Kings Head many times in my life and it’s always worth it. I’ve also waited in line to get upstairs at the Kings Head as well, but this year has been different. My friends and I arrived at 10pm, possibly one of the earliest times I’ve gotten to the bar. Paid the $5 cover and got in line to go upstairs. It’s 11:30pm now and there are still 30+ people ahead of us.. it doesn’t help that no one is regulating the people cutting in line as they come in the front door (groups of 5+ people at a time) which ended up being 80+ people that went up before us.

A few minutes ago we found out that there’s a second line you can stand in to go up the back set of stairs, but the catch is you pay an extra $20… that was disheartening to hear. Why not warn customers that their $5 cover, only gets them on the 1st floor (unless they want to spend their whole evening in line) and that it’s actually not considered enough $ to prioritize those people going upstair?

I’m sorry, but I can’t justify $25 to get a fast pass to go upstairs at the Kings Head, but I did however buy drinks while standing in line, unlike the new patrons of the Kings Head who so disrespectfully cut in line and than proceeded to spend no money on drinks while in line.

I Hope to see something improve with this process otherwise it might be time to find a new pub to frequent as no one I know want to go out on a Saturday night to have their patience tested and miss the bands we looked forward to seeing play. This used to be one of the best places to get out and dance to awesome live music, now I find it’s a spot to wait in lines 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ps. Last time my group waited an hour + in line and when we got close to the front the girl working the stairs admitted she had lost count.. which was very apparent when we finally made it up and it was super sparse. It was very disappointing as we had come to see the Solutions play (one of our favourite bands) and half the young crowd upstairs couldn’t care less about the songs they were playing 😔

Ive never written a negative review and I tried not to sound like a Karen while writing this review because I truly do love this bar and have spent more weekends in my 30 years here than I have anywhere else in Winnipeg, but I’m sad that this might be the end of the Kings Head era. Unless you show up at 9-9:30pm, don’t be surprised if you spend half your night in line unless they figure out a better system 🤷🏻‍♀️