Alliant Energy Center

Attended a weekend long convention here. It’s a very big venue with tons of rooms. For the convention we had a couple of rooms that could hold several hundred people and then some smaller rooms when we went to the different workshops. Each room you could have sound and projectors and the walls were magnetic as we used the walls to hold up big pieces of paper during brainstorming sessions. I have been here to for other events such as roller derby. There are several exhibitions halls for big events that can have thousands of people. Not too far from the Alliant Energy Center is the Veterans Coliseum which also holds a variety of events. There’s a good chance you’ll end up going to either of these places for a big event in Madison.

I was at the Alliant Energy Center for Mumford and Sons. This old building is hanging in there as a venue for concerts, hockey, and other community events. It’s not the most accessible place but the staff are helpful to get folks in to where they need to go. Seats are usually in good repair. There can be a couple seats that are a bit wonky at times, and then you just move your group over one seat. The bathrooms were relatively clean at the time I got to them near the end of the show.
Inside the venue, there really isn’t a bad place to seat, especially when Marcus and the guys went to the back area to play three acoustic songs. Sound quality for this show was really good. I know I had been to some shows that did not sound this good. I will chalk that up to poor sound mixers. There was good security around to assist folks or to card the young looking folks for beer purchases.
Outside the building, parking is always a dice game. I usually come in from Olin and that gate is closed 70% of the time. It was open at street entrance on this night so I went down and found the gate closed near the parking lot. I was bummed. I went in the next available gate and had to park on Willow Island. For seven bucks, I prefer to park on asphalt. But at that point, I was just happy to get parked and get in the admissions line.
It’s not my favorite concert venue but I will go there if my band is playing there. And seeing Mumford and Sons was totally worth that night!

I’ve been to only a handful of events here but every time the staff have always been curious, bathrooms are easy to locate, and the space is generally well laid out for each event.
Special events parking are reasonable (we paid $ 7) and again, the attendants working in the toll booths have always been very pleasant.
The new Holland Pavilions at the Alliant Energy Center is a beautiful new addition with well maintained and clean bathrooms.

This review is for the Coliseum and not the Expo Center. With that said, this was the first time I’ve been inside the Coliseum. Parking is $ 7.
The attendant said, «Go to the right, to the West Lobby» when we asked where to redeem my Groupon voucher. Follow the signs to «Advanced Tickets.» there are plenty of parking on the west parking lot and will call is through the doors. There will be plenty of signs and easy to follow.
In addition, the Coliseum is very easy to navigate. There are only 3 stories. There were no long stairs, thank goodness. While inside, it seemed a tad dated but clean. There are plenty of men’s and women’s restrooms on each floor.
I just wished there were hand rails when going up to the nose bleeds section. I felt bad for the older women that took almost 10 minutes to walk down or the guys that tripped walking up and almost fell backwards.
All in all, the sound quality at the event was crystal clear. The seating was comfortable for me; no cup holders. I can’t imagine how it would be like for someone with long legs though. I’m looking forward to more events at the Coliseum.

Went to see Toby Mac there on Sunday. It was a great show, but I wish that it would have been somewhere else. The Alliant Energy Center Coliseum needs some work. It’s barely been updated. The acoustics for concerts are absolutely horrible. I love the fact that it is a smaller venue, but the sound is bad. The reverb and the echoing is hard to ignore.

I’ve been to the Alliant Energy Center many, many times throughout my life. I still call it the Coliseum 97% of the time. It was the site of my first concert (Boyz II Men and Brandy), I used to run wild through the halls while my little brother had hockey practice or a game, I’ve been to the lumberjack games and Brat Fest outside, and even seen presidential hopefuls speak in the convention center. My most recent couple of trips have been for hockey, supporting our new Madison Capitols team. The games I’ve been to haven’t been super well attended, but it’s fun nonetheless, maybe because it reminds me of when I would go as a kid and roam the place like I owned it.
Concessions are moderately priced — I believe it’s $ 4.50 for a soft pretzel with cheese, and a similar price for a soda — not cheap, but also not nearly as high as many similar venues. The beer is where they get you ($ 6 for a 12oz can), but if you’re heading to a Capitols game you can take advantage of their $ 1 beer nights.
You’re not going to get anything fancy when you attend an event on the Alliant grounds, but I’ve never had a bad time there. Embrace the dated, 60s quality of the Coliseum and enjoy a big-​ticket outing for a pretty reasonable price.

I was here once, for a comic con. It was okay, I guess. The security was ridiculously over the top and the layout was a bit weird.

America on tap 2015 was on 3÷7÷2015. The venue was a great idea but poorly executed. The venue was way over booked and the line must have had 6000 people for such a small building. See my pictures. The lines were so long and you could not move. The blue shirt fucks acted like they were inconvenienced by the massive crowd and just took there time and made everything worse. Any worm body would do for working the venue. The booths had no information posted about the beers that were offered so every had to stop and ask about the beers to people who knew nothing about the beers.
It was a comedy of errors in action and I’m in a front row seat just watching. I watched booths closing down half way through because of the fest. Lines were 6 people wide for one booth. The booths were at both ends and the lines blended into each other so it was chaos, you had to walk sideways through the the lines to get around and push through people.
What a joke of an event and if you were there you know what I’m saying, I’m posting pictures.

We went to the 2015 Wizard World convention heald here… and we were not disappointed! I heard it got pretty cramped on Saturday but we went sunday (the last day) and had no issues with parking, walking room, or being croweded. Only thing to improve on is when we were parking the attendant was not very clear of which building to go to. Just that there was one building to register and another building the event was being heald in. Maybe next time signs might be helpful for parking also!

The only place you can drink beer is inside this little pen, like I’m a damn bull. The beer choices they have are terrible, only two. The beer they do have tastes terrible. Cash only for the beer. Cash only for the parking. Terrible cellular signal. What a dump.

This place can house as little of a show as you’d like, or as big… I’ve been here for a Roller Derby and also the Madison Women’s Expo. Proper amount of parking.

One of my favorite events is coming up here. GREAT family entertainment and great place to shop. Madison Rock and Mineral Show
November 23 and 24 ! There are cool demonstrations and showing large collections
of rocks and minerals– Sunday is bargain day!

From graduation to Expos to the Ludacris concert to World Dairy Expo to the Circus at the Coliseum portion this is the place to get everyone together and make it happen.
We’ve never had catering done so I don’t know if they offer it.
Space rental is about equivalent to what the UW charges.
Parking can be designated as free or paid but there’s an outline of what type of event gets this.
I appreciate the street light that has been installed in lieu of sheriff’s directing traffic — the automated lights are weight sensitive so if 1 or 1,000 need to enter and exit the Center … Madison makes it work.
Easy enough to get to from a Bike path. Across from the Dept. of Revenue. Across the over path from Badger Bowl and a gas station. Same exit as Sheraton on John Nolen and the Clareon Suites. Which the suites are next door and on Rimrock.
5 stars for being accessible from 2 exits: Rimrock & John Nolen.
Parking is ALWAYS always CASH.