Gallagher-Bluederon Performing Arts Center

The venue itself is great and the acts they bring are very good.
Our complaint is that the prices keep going up and have gotten to the point where we only go to one (if even that) show a year. (We used to go to 3 – 4 per year.) This is too bad.
Also, some of the ticket sales (phone) staff are quite rude. I called to inquire about some tickets I was told would be mailed to me and hadn’t received, only to be told that I shouldn’t have been told they would be mailed and she «wouldn’t know why I would have been told that — they were all placed in will call». (This was a free event, and I have no problem with that.) Then, I asked if she would please check to make sure they were indeed set aside and she snapped that «Well, I don’t know why they wouldn’t have been?» Well, probably for the same reason I was originally told they would be mailed — just an error. How rude! She did check for me (we didn’t want to show up with our guests and have no tickets) and curtly told me they were there. The snotty attitude was really a turnoff!

First I need to say that I love this facility. Even with the cheap seats you feel like you are still close to the action. (At the Des Moines Civic Center you feel like you need binoculars to see the stage.) Everything is well maintained and looks very nice.
They offer some shows with children’s tickets at $ 1. This has help us to expose our kids to the arts without breaking the bank to do it. They have accompanied us to more shows that I ever would have taken them to because of this.
Six years ago we became friends of Gallagher-​Bluederon and with our $ 50 donation we could order tickets slightly sooner than the general public. No other perks other than your name listed very tiny in the program. But then they decided to raise it to $ 125 dollars. Sure you can still contribute at a lower amount, but there is no real incentive. From the looks of it, many people dropped off the Friends list as well.
I always think that wouldn’t it be better to fill the house with everyone paying $ 25 a seat instead of charging $ 75 and only having ¹⁄₃ of the seats filled. Isn’t the goal to bring the arts to the people? If so, lower the prices a little. After all, this is why a lot of us can’t even think about going to a professional athletic contest either.