Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk Reviews
Jul 28, 2018
1. They will not let you leave the place once you are seated. You are a prisoner! You can't go out on the boardwalk to get some fresh air at intermission or escape the numerous people smoking pot next to you that the staff ignores. They claim that if they let you out, you'll go to the local grocery store and buy food there instead of getting it from their concession stands - so what! They have no right to keep you in there or force you to buy their overpriced hotdogs and chips. I wonder if this policy is even legal? It violates peoples rights and possibly constitutional amendments.
2. There is a bathroom on the boardwalk, that is accessible to people out there who can't afford tickets and are listening to the concert from the boardwalk. But they purposely lock out people from the boardwalk (to try to force them to buy tickets - then inside, they can use the bathroom that is otherwise open to the public during non concerts) who want to use that bathroom and there is no place else for them to go unless they walk 1/2 mile up the boardwalk to Nathans. This is really one miserable and despicable act of many at this place that you will find their rude staff enforcing.
3. When ordering tickets at the box office. There is no visable seating charts that you can look at or pick out your own seats (which is going to be better than what they dump on you). You have to rely on the clerks to give you a good seat # and row # - and they don't want to spend the time with you. There attitude is, "here is your $$$ ticket, take it or leave it and don’t bother me.” They are not friendly or helpful. My advice: do not buy a ticket there and support this oppressive, profit oriented regime.
4. If you order from Ticketmaster, you get better help, but they also charge you a little more money in service charges. If you order from the Coney Island Amph box office, you get the tickets right there and then and you save a few dollars over ticketmaster. But the box office charges a service fee between 8 and 12 dollars also. And when you buy tickets at a box office instead of online at a national ticket reseller, they are not supposed to charge you service charges. That’s the purpose of buying from the box office. But this place rips you off and the live nation box office right next to the Amphitheater, on the boardwalk, charges a service charge - really??? For you to to all the way there to get tickets they are not supposed to charge you - It’s unheard of. Nobody does this. In my opinion, they are ripping you off people. Somebody should look into weather this is legal or not. The BBB, State Attorney Generals office, IRS and other consumer offices should investigate this company. And a class action lawsuit should be considered as well. And Ford, your name is on this think, how are you allowing all of this?
5. When inside there, if you are in a back row, almost everyone in front of you stands up so it's hard to see in front of you. That's ashame because you thought that you were saving money and getting a decent view at the same time - think again. And live nation staff does nothing at all about this.
6. If it rains. It's continuously open on the boardwalk entrance side. If there is a strong wind and rain, you will get very wet and if you are unfortunate enough to be in section 102 all along the right side, you will get soaking wet and goodbye waterlogged smartphone. THIS IMAGE PROVES IT: billboard.com/articles/news/7438903/from-vacant-restaurant-to-60-million-venue-first-look-inside-coney-islands. TRIP ADIVSOR: do not reject my review just becauase I am posting a photo of this Amphitheater that I am reviewing in an attempt to show people that what other people are saying about not getting wet when it rains is not entirely true. And you can see from this photo why. This is not an advertisement for this company as you can see my review is negative and I’m not trying to advertise for them in any way, shape or form. It not that obvious after reading my review - keep reading.
7. There is a curfew time. But the Ford Amphitheater/ Live Nation, does not enforce it. There are times when concerts have gone on until well after midnight. This is disturbing to the community around it and the two nursing homes close by - but they don't care. As long as they make their money, that's what counts to them. And do not hang around that park on 23rd street and the boardwalk when this place closes. It is full of alleged drug addicts and other unscrupulous characters sitting down and visably smoking drugs. Also, many reports have gone out to the police about hearing gunshots in there late at night. You can check with the Bay News. They post an entire crime section on Coney Island. Please do not support this venue until they make changes and start caring about the community and people that attend.
8. bags: They check everything in your bags. (This is not a federal building - is it even legal?). They do not allow food or drink (eat before you go in there - do yourself a favor), and they do not allow you to leave once you enter or you cannot reenter even if you show the security your tickets. (Is this even legal?) This is an attempt to force you to buy food from their overpriced concession stand instead of the less expensive community grocery stores on Surf Ave and 22nd, 23rd street or virtually any of them in Coney Island. I think someone should look into this and if this is even legal. It seems to me that it violates peoples rights. Please do not support this venue.
9. HEARING THE MUSIC FROM OUTSIDE THE CONCERT: Yes, you can hear it perfectly on the boardwalk. If you can't afford the fee to go in or don't want to pay it because of some of the reasons above, You can hear the whole concert perfectly on the boardwalk right outside the entrance. You just can't see everything inside is the only drawback. My bring a chair, or sit on the boardwalk benches or just stand in front of the fence, and enjoy the concert while not supporting this venue is my best advice. However, saying that many concerts are just plain awful with poor sound, disharmonious singing and music, and out of practice bands. But some are very good. It’s a lot more minus than plus. You have to be prepared for that if you come out.
10. The time to get into the theater is very long. There are very long lines that run down the boardwalk. And if it's hot out there, it can be very unpleasant. But if you own a Ford car, you can go on their short line and get in quickly. But the rest of us is out of luck? Is that even legal I wonder? Sounds like discrimination to me. I wish the state attorney generals office would look into this.
11. Parking is awful. It's very hard to find parking. Do not park on 23rd street because it's a dead end block and cars make u turns in the middle of the block (they don't have the space to make a u turn in the middle of this narrow block that used to be a one way block before they put up the Amphitheater and turned 23rd street into a 2 way street) and often damage other cars and take off leaving the scene of the crime leaving you with the damage and the bill. And do not park in any of the parking lots on 23rd street - none of them are legal and none of them are insured. Either try to find free parking on Surf ave, Mermaid or Neptune Ave after 20th street or any side block thereof or park in the Cyclones parking lot on 17th street or further down at the Aquarium for a fee are some suggestions for parking. Dear TRIP ADVISOR: This is not advertisement to park anyway in particular, just a notification to make people aware of their parking options.
12. The box office has no phone ??? dah !!! Do not buy tickets from them. They are rude, ill mannered, numb, dumb and useless (my opinion) and you have no way to contact them once you leave there if anything goes wrong with your tickets, or you want to complain about them. Do not support this type of behavior.
13. They don’t accept prepaid visas, even major prepaid american express cards that are accepted all over the world. But will take other peoples regular bank credit cards. There are no signs posted to such. In my opinion, it’s discrimination. Someone should look into if it’s even legal or not. Someone should start a class action lawsuit against this company for many reasons. If you support this venue it’s like voting for someone who violates human rights in my opinion.
14. The people at the box office including the manager there Nicole Garcia, are rude, ill mannered and not there to help you buy tickets that you want, but there just to sell you tickets. Do not buy any tickets from this box office. Go onlne and use any other ticket seller but live nation is my advice.
Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk Reviews
1. They will not let you leave the place once you are seated. You are a prisoner! You can't go out on the boardwalk to get some fresh air at intermission or escape the numerous people smoking pot next to you that the staff ignores. They claim that if they let you out, you'll go to the local grocery store and buy food there instead of getting it from their concession stands - so what! They have no right to keep you in there or force you to buy their overpriced hotdogs and chips. I wonder if this policy is even legal? It violates peoples rights and possibly constitutional amendments.
2. There is a bathroom on the boardwalk, that is accessible to people out there who can't afford tickets and are listening to the concert from the boardwalk. But they purposely lock out people from the boardwalk (to try to force them to buy tickets - then inside, they can use the bathroom that is otherwise open to the public during non concerts) who want to use that bathroom and there is no place else for them to go unless they walk 1/2 mile up the boardwalk to Nathans. This is really one miserable and despicable act of many at this place that you will find their rude staff enforcing.
3. When ordering tickets at the box office. There is no visable seating charts that you can look at or pick out your own seats (which is going to be better than what they dump on you). You have to rely on the clerks to give you a good seat # and row # - and they don't want to spend the time with you. There attitude is, "here is your $$$ ticket, take it or leave it and don’t bother me.” They are not friendly or helpful. My advice: do not buy a ticket there and support this oppressive, profit oriented regime.
4. If you order from Ticketmaster, you get better help, but they also charge you a little more money in service charges. If you order from the Coney Island Amph box office, you get the tickets right there and then and you save a few dollars over ticketmaster. But the box office charges a service fee between 8 and 12 dollars also. And when you buy tickets at a box office instead of online at a national ticket reseller, they are not supposed to charge you service charges. That’s the purpose of buying from the box office. But this place rips you off and the live nation box office right next to the Amphitheater, on the boardwalk, charges a service charge - really??? For you to to all the way there to get tickets they are not supposed to charge you - It’s unheard of. Nobody does this. In my opinion, they are ripping you off people. Somebody should look into weather this is legal or not. The BBB, State Attorney Generals office, IRS and other consumer offices should investigate this company. And a class action lawsuit should be considered as well. And Ford, your name is on this think, how are you allowing all of this?
5. When inside there, if you are in a back row, almost everyone in front of you stands up so it's hard to see in front of you. That's ashame because you thought that you were saving money and getting a decent view at the same time - think again. And live nation staff does nothing at all about this.
6. If it rains. It's continuously open on the boardwalk entrance side. If there is a strong wind and rain, you will get very wet and if you are unfortunate enough to be in section 102 all along the right side, you will get soaking wet and goodbye waterlogged smartphone. THIS IMAGE PROVES IT: billboard.com/articles/news/7438903/from-vacant-restaurant-to-60-million-venue-first-look-inside-coney-islands. TRIP ADIVSOR: do not reject my review just becauase I am posting a photo of this Amphitheater that I am reviewing in an attempt to show people that what other people are saying about not getting wet when it rains is not entirely true. And you can see from this photo why. This is not an advertisement for this company as you can see my review is negative and I’m not trying to advertise for them in any way, shape or form. It not that obvious after reading my review - keep reading.
7. There is a curfew time. But the Ford Amphitheater/ Live Nation, does not enforce it. There are times when concerts have gone on until well after midnight. This is disturbing to the community around it and the two nursing homes close by - but they don't care. As long as they make their money, that's what counts to them. And do not hang around that park on 23rd street and the boardwalk when this place closes. It is full of alleged drug addicts and other unscrupulous characters sitting down and visably smoking drugs. Also, many reports have gone out to the police about hearing gunshots in there late at night. You can check with the Bay News. They post an entire crime section on Coney Island. Please do not support this venue until they make changes and start caring about the community and people that attend.
8. bags: They check everything in your bags. (This is not a federal building - is it even legal?). They do not allow food or drink (eat before you go in there - do yourself a favor), and they do not allow you to leave once you enter or you cannot reenter even if you show the security your tickets. (Is this even legal?) This is an attempt to force you to buy food from their overpriced concession stand instead of the less expensive community grocery stores on Surf Ave and 22nd, 23rd street or virtually any of them in Coney Island. I think someone should look into this and if this is even legal. It seems to me that it violates peoples rights. Please do not support this venue.
9. HEARING THE MUSIC FROM OUTSIDE THE CONCERT: Yes, you can hear it perfectly on the boardwalk. If you can't afford the fee to go in or don't want to pay it because of some of the reasons above, You can hear the whole concert perfectly on the boardwalk right outside the entrance. You just can't see everything inside is the only drawback. My bring a chair, or sit on the boardwalk benches or just stand in front of the fence, and enjoy the concert while not supporting this venue is my best advice. However, saying that many concerts are just plain awful with poor sound, disharmonious singing and music, and out of practice bands. But some are very good. It’s a lot more minus than plus. You have to be prepared for that if you come out.
10. The time to get into the theater is very long. There are very long lines that run down the boardwalk. And if it's hot out there, it can be very unpleasant. But if you own a Ford car, you can go on their short line and get in quickly. But the rest of us is out of luck? Is that even legal I wonder? Sounds like discrimination to me. I wish the state attorney generals office would look into this.
11. Parking is awful. It's very hard to find parking. Do not park on 23rd street because it's a dead end block and cars make u turns in the middle of the block (they don't have the space to make a u turn in the middle of this narrow block that used to be a one way block before they put up the Amphitheater and turned 23rd street into a 2 way street) and often damage other cars and take off leaving the scene of the crime leaving you with the damage and the bill. And do not park in any of the parking lots on 23rd street - none of them are legal and none of them are insured. Either try to find free parking on Surf ave, Mermaid or Neptune Ave after 20th street or any side block thereof or park in the Cyclones parking lot on 17th street or further down at the Aquarium for a fee are some suggestions for parking. Dear TRIP ADVISOR: This is not advertisement to park anyway in particular, just a notification to make people aware of their parking options.
12. The box office has no phone ??? dah !!! Do not buy tickets from them. They are rude, ill mannered, numb, dumb and useless (my opinion) and you have no way to contact them once you leave there if anything goes wrong with your tickets, or you want to complain about them. Do not support this type of behavior.
13. They don’t accept prepaid visas, even major prepaid american express cards that are accepted all over the world. But will take other peoples regular bank credit cards. There are no signs posted to such. In my opinion, it’s discrimination. Someone should look into if it’s even legal or not. Someone should start a class action lawsuit against this company for many reasons. If you support this venue it’s like voting for someone who violates human rights in my opinion.
14. The people at the box office including the manager there Nicole Garcia, are rude, ill mannered and not there to help you buy tickets that you want, but there just to sell you tickets. Do not buy any tickets from this box office. Go onlne and use any other ticket seller but live nation is my advice.