Celeste Center

It’s just not a great setup for concerts. Way too many seats on the floor — there is just no way most of the people in those sections are going to have a good view at all, and those sections are massive. I made a mistake when buying my tickets — I thought I was purchasing in the first section BEHIND the floor seats, but it was just floor seats behind MORE FLOOR SEATS. Miserable, view wise. The acoustics were good, and it was a nice surprise to find that a venue at a fairgrounds was indoors, because so often you end up getting rained out or having to sit in rain when you have tickets for a concert that is scheduled during a fair. Just be aware that you need to either get seats way up front or in the bleachers… and the amount of floor seating is massive, so be careful when choosing your seats! Oh, the Ohio State Fair itself is kinda fun to walk around before the show (especially if you like fair food and, again, as long as rain isn’t an issue!)… it’s not specific to the venue, but fair admission and parking came with the tickets, and that was a bonus to going to a concert here!

Wow, I can’t believe this hasn’t been reviewed at all. Mike G. tipped me off, since he and I were both there recently.
I’ve been to several concerts here over the years, and while it’s not the best venue, it’s decent, and something of a tradition. It can get crowded and hot. More signage would be good– it’s hard to tell where to enter the building for which section, and other seating signage inside is kinda small. The Ohio and US flags hanging from the ends look like they need some TLC.
But the sound is good, the sightlines are great, and getting in and out usually isn’t crazy. Plenty of bathrooms, a few food stands and beer stands, plus they didn’t say anything about us carrying in food.
This time I saw Joan Jett and Heart. Came for Joan, stayed for a bit of Heart. It was a great show. The crowd loved it. We sat on the floor (well, on single seats on the floor level.) Seats were comfy; short people may have trouble seeing the stage.
We’ll be back. You get free fair admission with your concert ticket, and it’s pretty much an annual tradition for us to go to the fair anyway, for fair food and people watching.