Aaron’s Amphitheatre

I’m a concert lover and I go to at least 20/​year. Each time a band I want to see is playing, I pray that they don’t go to this arena. Each and every time I’ve been there, I’ve had a horrendous experience that stems from the event staff. Let me explain:
I’m a very easy going and friendly concert goer, but this place from beginning to end trys its’ best to detract from a good time.
1. The staff (obviously not everyone) is almost always uninformed and never on the same page. If you have a simple question like, «would you mind telling me where section 103 would be?», you’ll likely get told different answers by different people. It often seems like the employees just want to give people ANY answer to «keep them moving» — That’s how you’re treated at this venue. Cattle… not like a human being.
2. The gravel parking lot is chaotic getting in and out which wouldn’t be such a big deal if you could park and go into the venue… No, that would be too convenient. Typically, you’ll have to wait in a single file line for about 45 – 90 minutes in the blazing hot, dust filled, unorganized parking lot just to get in the doors.
3. Once you’re inside, it is immediately clear that the restrooms cannot handle the crowd — if you want to use the restroom without waiting, you’ll have to go during an act.
4. Near the concession area, there is typically a strong sewage like odor.
5. All of that would be acceptable, but the security at this place has the most abrasive, bullish, rude, uninformed employees that I’ve ever come across. Try to ask someone a simple question, and they’ll treat you like you’re trying to «get away» with something. You’ll quickly be rudely interrupted and be told the standard script no matter what the question or concern may be.
6. This one is a bit more of a personal gripe… FIrst let me say that I understand that there is security there for a reason… However, I was recently invited by a certain band to say hi backstage… As usual, when I arrived at the gate, I asked where do I go to pick up my passes — rudely interrupted and told that the VIP meet and greet had already happened. I politely explained that this wasn’t some sort of purchased meet and greet, but it was an invite… I was met again with «VIP meet and greet has already happened»… So, I asked politely if someone could just check in with my contact backstage so that they could come get me. I was told that I would have to call that person — which would have been fine, but there isn’t any cell service to be had at this place, so I tried for 45 minutes to get a signal… explaining once again and very politely asking if they would be willing to go check b/​c of the cell situation. No! Now keep moving! Finally, at the end of the night some MMA fighter type (just as I finally got in touch with my band contact) said that they had 30 seconds to come get me or I had to move on. He started a timer on his watch, and then asked me to go. I’m not going to be the guy to get kicked out, so I left… but it’s this sort of «my way or the highway» approach that really made me furious.
The core of the problem is that the employees DONT LISTEN AND DON’T TREAT PEOPLE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS HERE — You’re just another jerk that you want to get out of your face.
If the dead Beatles rose from their graves and did a reunion show here, I wouldn’t go. NEVERAGAIN!

I went to the Weezer/​Panic! at the Disco show. There was nobody directing traffic near the venue. I get there and the only parking lots left were a couple of grass lots and a paved lot ran by Lanier Parking just outside the complex parking lot. I was shocked to see parking was $ 30-​$ 40! When I asked why the parking fee was so high, I was told «supply and demand» that the price was based on who was playing. I said sounds more like price gouging. I’ve never seen parking over $ 15-​$ 20 at an event before. So luckily there was a gas station right there, and of course there was a line of people using the ATM. The gas station was selling extra parking behind the building for $ 30 so I spent my money parking there. If you do park at the gas station, DO NOT let them put you in the last spot against the wall. While I knew there wouldn’t be any dents and dings on that side, they parked a car along the wall behind me and put them too close. I had to wait 45 minutes for a group of teenagers to show up to move the car.
The souvenir lines were really long. There was one booth just outside the venue and 2 as you walked in and the lines were so long due to limited merchandise it made it really congested. Not sure if that was a venue or a band thing, but they were already sold out of posters and pin sets before the show started, and all they had left was tanks, t-​shirts, hoodies, and koozies and tank tops started at $ 35. There was nothing for the opening act, only Panic! and Weezer. The opening act was apparently given a tiny booth that no one could find.
The first thing you run into is a Wine Bar that sells by the bottle, starting at $ 36 and as high as $ 100 a bottle. There was a craft beer stand, a cocktail/​mixed drink stand, and a typical burgers/​hot dogs/​chicken tenders/​nachos/​pretzels stand. They also had 3 food trucks: Mac and Cheese, Funnel Cake, and a shaved ice truck. The Funnel Cake one didn’t even open until after the 2^nd band of 3. The chicken tenders and fries ($ 11) were actually pretty good, but none of the ketchup dispensers worked. The guy said he had just filled them both, but couldn’t get any to work either. Beer at the craft beer stand was $ 10.50.
It’s just a standard amphitheater, some covered seating, uncovered seating, and the lawn. With 3 bands and set changes it was 4 hours (at least Panic! and Weezer both played an hour and 15 minutes each, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness only got a 25 minute set to open).
After the show everyone was pushing to get out and everyone wanted to stop at the 2 souvenir booths that were still open at the entrance/​exit and congested the process. I then waited 45 mins to get my car out of the parking lot (because the parking guys blocked my car in with another car), it then took another 45 minutes to even get the 2.3 miles to the interstate. The location is horrible and no good way to get out. Again there was nobody directing traffic and it takes so long because people leaving are walking in the road and no breaks for cars to get out. And other cars trying to get going in the right direction will cut across and block a lane of traffic trying to go the other way or people pulling their cars up and blocking the intersections so cars can’t turn and get through. I highly doubt I would ever go back to this venue. Especially without knowing how much parking is going to cost until you get there.

We go to a number of different venues around Atlanta but after last evenings’ trip and experience at seeing Journey & Doobie Brothers, we won’t return to Lakewood. The road infrastructure and lack of anyone directing traffic caused an hour delay off I-​85 to find only limited parking and we settled on $ 15 remote parking that was pretty nerve wracking after the concert. Going in, I was frisked (I’m 60) and my wife had to explain every little thing in her purse which we found outrageous. Others were grilled over prescription drugs. WTF? And we missed the opening group (Dave Mason) after our 2 hour trip to this joint.
More importantly, and why we paid well over $ 100 a ticket, the sound for both groups was muddled and others, not just us, confirmed it wasn’t just our old ears. Concessions were expensive — who wants a 24 oz $ 12 beer anyway? If I sound crabby, it is what it is… How this place survives is a mystery to us — but avoid it unless you can’t miss that favorite artist and are willing to put up with and risk a LOT.

Me and my wife attended the Luke Bryan concert and it was a great show. The only major complaint I have is they need more bathrooms and the chairs could be a little bit bigger. The food and beer prices were to be expected high. We parked in the free parking and it wasn’t hard to get out at all.

First and LAST time we go to this venue. They hire ZERO police for traffic control and no one to control the mass exodus of pedestrians at the closing of the concert. It was a Luke Bryan concert, so you might expect a relatively well behaved crowd, but not! Girl fights and limited security. The employees that were there were very pleasant, but ill informed and NO communication. We were sent to the wrong lot for VIP/​pit tickets and had to walk two miles around. Drunken pedestrians flooded the traffic lanes falling over our car and jamming intersections. No control at all!

Enjoy shows here but the parking is a cluster in the worst possible way. Food sucks however i do like the $ 5 chair rental for lawn seats.

Went here for the first time for the Oddball Comedy tour. Got lawn seats from Groupon. You can bring low folding chairs, and the venue also has plenty available for rent. There was some light rain in the evening so we brought a tarp to put our blankets on.
You aren’t allowed to bring any food or drink inside besides a factory-​sealed water bottle, and Dasani is $ 4.75.
There was free parking available on one side of the amphitheater. The gates opened at 5:15 (show started at 7) and the lot was already filling up around 4:30. There are other paid lots that ranged between $ 10 and $ 25 on the other side.
Food was kinda pricey which is typical for a concert venue. I waited in a long line of people waiting for pretzels/​hotdogs to be delivered to the concession stand located on the stage left side of the lawn. I just wanted some wine. When I got to the front, the attendant told me they only had red wine (for $ 9!!!), and I’m a white drinker. There were more concession stands in the plaza outside of the amphitheater, so I went down there. The wine in the plaza was $ 11 but whatever.
The other thing that kind of bothered me about the venue was that they had people selling hotdogs/​pretzels/​beer out on the lawn, and they’d shout «BEER!!! PRETZELLLLSS» during the sets, which was kind of distracting.
The women’s restrooms were clean though and that’s a great thing.
If the weather is nice and you get here early enough for free parking AND you don’t mind dropping a few dollars for food/​drink, it can be a fun time!

Very nice venue. I’ve been to many a venue and festival in Atlanta, but never this one. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Very spacious, clean and staff was friendly.

The venue is large and accommodating. I’ve been to One Music Fest the last two years here and with an event with over 20+ acts each time, there is tons of space to watch the performances. Even if you are on the lawn or seated way in the back of the big stage, there are TVs that can help you watch the performances. Not to mention the other stages around the venue.
What sucks here is the food and drink lines. It’s ridiculous. You can wait in the upwards for 45 mins just to get in the front of the line where you still have to wait for food. If you could review a section for just food lines, it would be 0 stars.
People complain about the parking but it’s ample parking all around the stadium for much cheaper than the stadium parking. Everybody has a hustle outside so you may end up parking in a church parking lot but it’s only 10 dollars.
Not to encourage illegal behavior but security is way relaxed here. They don’t allow large backpacks but you can pretty much get in with anything else.

I came to Aaron’s to attend One Music Fest. The line to enter the parking lot was not clearly marked and cars were attempting to enter from both directions. Also not marked was the price. Many of the previous reviews mentioned free parking, which was much less than the $ 20 I paid to park in a gravel lot. I’m sure there were many broken heels caused by the trek from the lot to the amphitheater.
The security check point moved rather quickly although I don’t believe they cared what was in your bag when they «scanned» though it. The line to scan tickets also moved very fast. The venue itself is big and has plenty of stations for refreshments and restrooms. The refreshment stations seemed to be unable to handle such large crowds. The wait in line was over an hour so you’re better off getting something from the food trucks. If you’re thirsty and not prepared to spend $ 8 on a drink, drink the one bottle of water you are allowed to bring in sparingly (check the website for what you are and aren’t allowed to bring) There are no water fountains or water stations. Getting around and navigating the venue can be a challenge. There aren’t maps and its not the easiest asking a staff member for help. As far as the sound and viewing quality, I believe it could be better for a venue this large.

Had the opportunity to go to Aaron’s Amphitheatre for a two-​night stand courtesy of Phish.
The neighborhood surrounding the venue is a tad bit sketchy. I also wasn’t a fan of the gravel parking lot for a variety of reasons. As for the venue itself, I had no major complaints. Didn’t have any issues getting beers or going to the restroom in a timely manner.
As far as the music, I mean its Phish, so Trey and crew did what they do. My buddy and I had fairly good tickets for both nights, so we didn’t have any issues with sight-​lines or acoustics.

Run down venue that needs an update! The food and drinks here are over price with crappy parking. They need to have a better way to organized this venue as many of the staff doesn’t know what there doing or even know how to direct you. I think they should have a shuttle from a designated area so there wouldn’t be any 30 – 40 min wait to get out of the parking area.

This place has horrible service!
So I bought tickets to the J Cole and Big Sean concert for my birthday. It was my first time going to a concert here, and it was a nightmare! I had no idea where the VIP parking was and the people directly traffic weren’t trying to answer any questions. I get down to the ticket line and the first, second, and third check had no idea where the VIP boxes were. Someone even told me that my tickets were general seating. No one I asked in security really knew either. I literally had to go through 10(ish) people before I found my seats. WTF? The «VIP» lounge was that great either. It’s nice to have actual bathrooms but don’t think you are going to be able to charge your phone in there. They weren’t even serving food, so we had to order from concessions and bring it to the lounge. I absolutely loved my seats, but the entire process was a mess. I guess now I know, but I would’ve preferred the employees to be a little more helpful throughout the process. It’s not like they have signs pointing you in the right direction.
Side bar, the lady offering free popcorn in the lounge was nice…

Every time I go here it just looks more and more run down. I was there for the Mayhem Festival and for Phish this past week and what a sad, sad venue. The parking situation is absolutely horrible (25 bucks to park? I don’t think so) and once you get in, guess what? NO WATER FOUNTAINS! They have pulled all of the water fountains. Is this even humane to do?
Heads up. They allow you to bring in a sealed bottle of water so do that and save yourself the the 5 bucks for a bottle of water. I just don’t understand how with rising concert ticket prices and what not that a venue can actually get worse and degrade as much as Lakewood has.

My first visit to Aaron’s, May 2015
PARKING — Yay it’s FREE, BUT so not worth it… My husband and I parked, there is apparently a lot of tailgating, no problem. We start to walk away from the car and like always I looked around for a landmark to remember where the car is… No numbers, letters, colors, I finally resort to counting the streetlights and hoping we can figure it out from that. THEN, being our first time, we didn’t know where the theatre was, we saw a lot of people walking out of the parking area so we followed. We realize everyone is walking out into several different directions, ok so I fired up my phone map, that didn’t really help. We saw a convenient store walked to it to get water (we will be happy about that later), I asked someone who worked there how to get to the theatre. His directions were probably accurate IF I already knew where I was going, we finally walk way out of the way and arrive. We will later learn that we could have entered the theatre from the parking lot. WHY WASNT THERE A SIGN ???
Cut to the end of the show, we were able to find the car. We were in grid-​lock trying to get out of the parking lot for OVER AN HOUR (I’m not yelling, just putting it in caps for people scrolling through to notice it), not kidding, it was miserable.
WILL CALL — The line wasn’t horrible, we were there about 45 minutes early. We used Ticket Master, showed our app and ID, that went smoothly. We did hear two other groups at the windows upset that their tickets couldn’t be found.
FOOD & DRINKS — Severely overpriced (which explains the amount of tailgating) with horribly long lines. My husband bought drinks for us and said he wasn’t about to wait in yet another line for food.
THE LAWN — We sat on the lawn (and won’t be doing that again). We brought our own chairs, apparently they have some you can rent. So as we sat, the sun melted us, when the concert started you could not see the big screens due to the glare of the sun. Then everyone stood up, I get it, concert and dancing go hand in hand, but we didn’t feel like standing for every song. I read someone complain about dog poop, fortunately we didn’t run into that, but as we left there was a lot of cans and stuff left lying around. Be careful wearing open toed shoes, you could cut yourself on smashed cans, step in a puddle of alcohol (or was that urine??), just BE AWARE…
VENUE — When it was time to leave the concert, the crowd bottlenecks at the top of the steep stairs to get out. The scary part about it is the railing you can’t see because of the thickness of the crowd and poor lighting. My husband and I were managing to stay together being herded with the crowd, when suddenly we are separated not just a little… A rail we couldn’t see trapped him from being able to go down the stairs. He had to fight his way through the crowd to get around it and back to me. By that time I was already herded down the bottom of the steep stairs and searching for him. If we had known it was going to take an hour to get out of the parking lot, we would have stayed in our chairs for a while and waited for the insane scary crowd to subside.
PHONE SERVICE — Forget trying to upload your pics to social media. I could barely get a call out to the sitter to check on our children.
Will we go back? Well yeah, when that is the venue one of your favorite artist chooses to use, you don’t have options. We have tickets for a concert there soon and I will be updating my review based on how well our new game plan works out.

Traffic here was terrible! The venue did not hire cops to facilitate any traffic feeding into the venue. This was the first and last time I’ll be coming here; traffic was worse than going to a Braves or Falcons game. If you want to make a concert here, I suggest you come when the parking lots open… that’s around 3 hrs ahead of showtime. The amphitheater itself is fine and so are the concessions. Everything was clean and organized… besides the traffic. I did make a smart roundabout way to get there after sitting standstill for 1 hr on I-​75 and Pryor Rd… saved me probably another 1 hr in traffic. Would definitely rather trek all the way to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta to see a concert, at least they do consider traffic flow up there.
Never again.

Just saw Lana Del Rey in an absolutely stunning concert, perhaps the best female vocalist in my lifetime. This review is not reflective of her in any way. Instead, it’s and indictment of the venue.
The amphitheater is actually a very nice layout. What kills the entire place is the venue management. For example, they do little to nothing to control the a-​holes who come from behind our section and stand in front of us (in the aisle), blocking out view, a view I paid more for than the people behind me. Then of course that causes people seated in front of us to stand up, causing a chain reaction. If you are this type of person, you are an a-​hole.
Next, the inept security guys, apparently law enforcement washouts (as a former fed, I can spot these guys a mile away), start blathering orders for people to clear the section by immersing into a packed stream of people at the end of the show. No customer service skills at all. When challenged as to why he wants to force my daughter and me into that situation, he storms off– just like a wannabe cop.
Finally, there is absolutely no traffic control to be found at the end of the concert despite all the wannabe cops, as well as the 7 «real cops» I counted just hanging out inside the gate smoking cigarettes. I don’t know what department covers this area, but that is pathetic in any department. As I type this, I have been waiting in my car for over an hour trying to figure out how I am going to get out of here.
I will go anywhere to see Lana Del Rey. Just not this place. And, don’t even get me started on concession prices. $ 13 for a can of beer? Was I at the World Cup?

My most recent visit to this venue to see a DMB concert was not my first visit. Maybe because I’m getting older and more difficult to please, I noticed a number of things about this venue that I did not like.
First and foremost, the sound is terrible! Yes, we were in the lawn… but it’s an amphitheater. Can we please get some sound in the back?! I felt like I was listening to background music. And the screens up front are too small to see anything, and completely worthless before the sun sets. Aaron’s amphitheater is ironically in DIRE need of some updated AV equipment.
I feel like it’s worth adding that I tried to get seats up front, but they sold out and I wound up with lawn seats. Still, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to be able to hear the music when you buy tickets to a concert. No matter where the seats are.
My other complaint is one that I’m sure would apply to many venues like this, but they totally gauge you on the beer prices. $ 15 for a giant can of cheap beer. I really wish they would invest some of that $ 14.50 profit into the AV equipment. But not to beat a dead horse… Possibly making up for this, at least a little, was some Coca Cola folks handing out free Coke outside the gates after the concert.
Our über was super easy to get after the concert (we left about 2 minutes before the last chord to beat the crowd) and was about $ 35 back to Midtown at double rate. I wanted to mention that because I tried finding some info about how hard it would be to get an über after a concert and I couldn’t find anything.

I made a trek here for a concert on September 16, 1998. It was Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope tour and this place was called Lakewood Amphitheatre then. This was a great night for me!!! It was the first time, it wouldn’t be the last, I saw my music idol in person!!!
Finding this place was very easy but traffic was at a stand still getting closer to the venue. Parking was a breeze as well. We were out the car and in the venue in less than 10 minutes. We had lawn seats. So we watched the show from the lawn but we didn’t stay there for long. The show started on time with Usher being the opening act. He did great singing and dancing very well. He wasn’t as big as he is now, as far as stardom, but he was still well-​known. I think he was on for about 30 minutes before it was Janet’s turn to kill it!!!
We walked around the venue looking at merchandise and just enjoying our time there. I don’t know how much time had went by before Janet came on but the lights went out and we RAN back to our seats to see her set!!! The show began with «The Velvet Rope» and went well over 2 hours with all the singing and great dancing she did.
There was a wall that separated the lawn seats and the arena seats. We kept jumping up on that wall singing and dancing along. The ushers of the venue kept coming telling us to get down. We would get down and when they leave jump right back up there. I guess they gave up after a while because we wasn’t gonna be stopped that night… LOL!!! While the show went on, we were able to grab other people’s seats that had already left. Everyone was still having a good time, people were dancing in the aisles and singing along too. The show was GREAT!!!
After the show was over, we took pictures with a backdrop on Janet and sat around talking. As we were talking a group of men walked past us. One of the guys looked familiar but we didn’t put two and two together. Then the guy who took our pictures said,“Hey that was Ronnie Devoe from New Edition and BBD!!!” We were like, «OMG!!!» We ran to catch up with the group and get his autograph. He and his entourage chit chatted with us. That was another highlight of the night.
As we were leaving, a guy gave us a flyer for the Official afterparty at a local club. We were three 16-​year olds and one adult. We didn’t care if we couldn’t get in us three just wanted to see if Janet would show up. We drove around for a while trying to find that club, which we never found. As I think back to it now, I don’t think the adult in the bunch wanted us to go either… LOL!!!
This was a great night for me and everyone who I went along with. I still remember this night like it was yesterday and that was fifteen years ago. Like I said before, this was my first time seeing Janet in concert but it definitely wasn’t my last!!!

Lakewood Amphitheatre is a popular concert venue located about four miles south of downtown Atlanta. The amphitheatre originally opened in 1989 and has undergone multiple name changes (just like college football bowls). Since 2009, the amphitheatre has been known as Aaron’s Amphitheatre. It’s an outdoor venue with a maximum seating capacity of around 19,000.
I attended not a concert, but a comedy show at Lakewood: Funny or Die’s Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival 2014. Jeff Ross was the host and several well known names in comedy were present including Chris Hardwick, Aziz Ansari, and Louis C.K. We got a group together, tickets purchased online via GrouponLive, and had a good time.
According to Groupon’s web site (
), over 5,000 Groupons were sold. We purchased general admission lawn tickets. Doors opened at 5pm, the show started at 7pm and ended around 10:30pm. We arrived around 6pm, so we got to experience the amphitheatre in both daylight and moonlight. The views during both daytime and nightime were nice. However, during the daytime, we were just baking in the sun.
I don’t know if this was Groupon’s fault, Live Nation’s fault (Live Nation is the amphitheatre’s operator), or both their faults, but our actual scannable tickets to the event were not available until just a couple hours before the doors opened. This was a problem because Groupon/​the Amphitheatre said the tickets had to be printed. I risked it, did not print my tickets, and was able to get in fine by showing the tickets («G Passes») on my phone using the Groupon mobile app.
Upon arrival, three lines fed to security and the ticket scanners. The left and right lines were very long. The middle line was significantly shorter. I don’t think most people knew there was a middle line because they were standing in either the really long left or really long right line. This meant they were too far away to see the short middle line. Don’t be afraid to walk right up to the front gates to assess the situation before getting in line. The situation would have been better if Lakewood had staff to assist with balancing out the queues.
Lakewood is a very basic, no-​frills amphitheatre. Of the 19,000 «seats,» 7,000 are covered (with seat assignments) and 12,000 are uncovered (general admission, no seat assignments) on the lawn. If you sit on the lawn, bring a towel or blanket to sit on. You are not allowed to bring coolers, baskets, or chairs. Chairs are available for rent inside the venue.
Shows go on regardless of weather. If you’re out on the lawn during the day, wear sunscreen, sunglasses, and/​or a hat. If you’re out on the lawn when it rains, be prepared to get wet and dirty. Store your phone, wallet, and other small valuables in zip-​lock bags to protect them from the rain. Umbrellas are not allowed. Wear a rain jacket, poncho, and/​or rain boots or footwear you don’t mind getting muddy. You’ll probably want to bring towels and an extra change of clothes/​shoes and keep them in the car too.
The lawn gradually inclines downward towards the stage. The angle is shallow. Four large projection screens are located next to the stage, two on either side. The outermost two screens are harder to see than the innermost two screens. All four are easiest to see at night. The sound system is superb. The comedians’ voices broadcasted through the speakers loud and clear. There were some musical interludes throughout the night and the music sounded great as well.
Outside food and drink are not allowed. However, each person is allowed to bring one sealed bottled water in. The bottled water must be sealed to ensure no outside alcohol is snuck in. Likewise, any bottled drinks purchased at the venue are served with caps permanently removed. This is very annoying. The reasoning behind this is management doesn’t want people sneaking in alcohol and mixing it with concession drinks.
There are several concession stands inside. One of the concession stands, named South Rocks the World, had the following prices posted:
Large premium draft beer — $ 12.00
Large ultra premium draft beer — $ 15.00
Domestic «big boy» can — $ 11.00
Premium «big boy» can — $ 13.00
Bottled soda — $ 5.50
Dasani bottled water — $ 4.50
Snacks — $ 5.00
For urinating, the men’s restroom has long stainless steel troughs.
I’m not sure if this is the case for every event at Lakewood, but parking was free. There’s a huge gravel and dirt lot located directly in front of the main entrance on Lakewood Way. Many people tailgated in this lot. Parking attendants directed cars entering the lot in an efficient and orderly fashion. However, leaving the lot after the show was a completely different story. It was chaotic and a cluster****. Luckily, we parked near the exit so we got out relatively quick after the show.