Collier’s Weekly: Why Can’t We Have a Convenient Concert Venue?

As complaints about major venues have increased, it appears that the places hosting concerts are unconcerned with delivering a hassle-free experience.
Four Chord Music Festival Sean Collier

PHOTO BY SEAN COLLIER

The story after this year’s Four Chord Music Festival should’ve been a tale of triumph: A locally made music festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with a weekend full of power chords and fun.

Instead, the story was about venue woes.

For the last few years, the festival was held at Wild Things Park in Washington — through last year’s event, pictured above. This year, though, the festival relocated to the Carrie Blast Furnaces, opting for a visually striking venue much closer to town.

The Furnaces site is no stranger to larger events; the Pittsburgh Irish Festival has happened there several times, it has hosted a number of theatrical events, and it even became a drive-in movie theater during the depths of the pandemic. But none of those events saw thousands of fans standing all day in the hot sun — nor did they see that many people trying to get in and out via the one road leading to the site at the same time.

Getting out was particularly nettlesome; the Post-Gazette reported that rideshare drivers were spreading the word among colleagues to not even try to pick up riders, lest they be stuck for hours.

This problem is by no means limited to the historic site in Swissvale. Star Lake has also seen traffic and transportation complaints throughout the years, including fans missing shows altogether due to an inability to muddle through the traffic and parking.

Two of the region’s prominent mid-sized venues, Mr. Smalls Theatre and the Roxian Theatre, do lie on convenient public-transportation lines — but have no parking to speak of. Stage AE is probably the most convenient, located in an area with an abundance of transit and parking options … but they’re notorious for having admission lines that stretch endlessly, the result of too few entrances and too stringent security policies.

Related: 7 Hot Music Venues Around Pittsburgh

Why the hell can’t we figure out how to get people in and out of concerts?

This is not a problem unique to Pittsburgh; a story in Forbes detailed a worse mess last week at a New Jersey festival. But we may be unique in that we don’t have one major concert venue that isn’t viewed as something of a hassle, from the traffic nightmare of Star Lake to the lines at Stage AE.

Actually, that’s a slight exaggeration; I was chatting with one person over the weekend who raved at the ease of getting in and out of concerts held at Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in Washington. Food, transportation (admittedly via car), parking, on-site hotels — everything, she said, was a breeze.

I concur; I’ve been to shows there, and they’re remarkably low stress. Here’s what that means: It’s possible.

Venues need to prioritize the entire experience of the concertgoer, not just the part where they’re spending money at the concession stand. Larger venues such as Star Lake and, if it wants the trouble, the Carrie Furnaces, can find in-and-out transportation solutions or at least hire more well-trained staff to direct traffic; smaller venues can open more doors, add more security personnel and speed up the process.

The alternative, as many venues are seeing, is people staying home. Several high-profile concert tours have been canceled this year as fans decide high prices and the hassle aren’t worth it. I’ve had tickets in hand for concerts at Star Lake, then decided on the day of the show that I’d rather spend my energy elsewhere.

I also remember another time, when I did make it to the show. I had a good time. And when it ended, rather than try to fight traffic, I took a long nap in my car.

I woke up 90 minutes later. There was still a line of people trying to get out.

There’s no way that’s the best possible solution.

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