Val Air Ballroom

I went to see Against Me! and the Dropkick Murphys, and it was the worst experience I have ever had from any concert venue. I worked at a major concert venue, and attended concerts across the US. I arived .5hr after the doors open, which was half an hour before the show was supposed to start, and I was in line in the cold for 1.5hr. This meant that I missed the entire opening act, and only saw 3 songs from the Against Me! set. Upon entering I was told that there is no way to re-enter, even though I had my stub for this sold out show. When I looked for someone to discuss this with, I was informed that there was 0 management on-site. In addition (after I walked out following the first set by the Murphy's to try to find the manager) I saw a person, who had been dropped in the pit and was obviously injured, get a cursory glance from security and then be told "nah you look ok". So, not only is the service attrocious but borders on criminally negligent. Never getting my money again!

We arrived at about 7:40pm for the Dropkick Murphy's concert and took a place in line. That line, which barely seemed to move, took approximately 1.5 hours to reach the front door. The temperature was thirty degrees and the wind chill was probably 10 to 20. No one told us what was happening, so it almost seemed like it was a "one in, one out" sort of capacity problem. We got in at about 9:15 and missed almost all of the opening acts. The entire experience was absolutely horrific and no one in our party will ever be attending another event there. We’re trying to register complaints with the BBB, TicketMaster and possibly the State Attorney General regarding the performance of this venue. In short, what they advertised was not what they delivered.

We arrived at about 7:40pm for the Dropkick Murphy's concert and took a place in line. That line, which barely seemed to move, took approximately 1.5 hours to reach the front door. The temperature was thirty degrees and the wind chill was probably 10 to 20. No one told us what was happening, so it almost seemed like it was a "one in, one out" sort of capacity problem. We got in at about 9:15 and missed almost all of the opening acts. The entire experience was absolutely horrific and no one in our party will ever be attending another event there. We’re trying to register complaints with the BBB, TicketMaster and possibly the State Attorney General regarding the performance of this venue. In short, what they advertised was not what they delivered.

I bought tickets to see the Dropkick Murhpy's with Against Me on 3/4/2011. I got there around 8:00, expecting there to be no line, because the doors had been opened at 7:00 and the show should have started at 8. There was a line completely around the back of the building, and I ended up waiting over an hour and a half to get inside, completely missing the opening bands and not before I got groped by "security" guards. Once inside, the openers had already finished and I had to go to the bathroom.. I finally found the line for it and waited almost 45 minutes to get to the bathroom. The facilites there are completely inadequate for the amount of people that were there. I will not be going back.

I have been to thousands of concerts, many at the Val Aire ballroom. This is the only place that consistently over-amps the music to the point where its just noise. I understand some concerts being ridiculously loud (i.e. music as a weapon tour with Disturbed... which was by far the loudest concert I have ever heard) but why destroy the music of Wilco and Moudest Mouse by turning it up too loud. My hopes are that the city of West Des moines gets their noise ordance legally correct and shuts this place down so a better venue can replace it. Figure it out sound guys because you are the ones that ruin it for everyone- not so at any other venue in town. Groups should boycott this place and go to People's Court and & Flags.

A wonderful place full of good memories.

My wife and I came 4 hrs to see Rob Zombie at the Val Ballroom and we never got a chance to see him because of the damn crowd was in our way! so we left! The ballroom should limit the number of stuipid people so that the place won't be so damn crowded. So it was basically a waste of time and money! At least we seen him in Brookings, SD 2 yrs ago! The crowd wasn't that bad at all at the time and we had good seats! Again this place basically sucks!

I recently reserved the salon throughout a hispanic person didn't get round tables as promised, i had to placed the tables by myself, deposit check was cashed when the salon was already paid in cash, i asked them for the check they said it was shreded and it wasn't i got overdraft fee through my bank of course i was not expencting that charge and hispanic person said their are not responsable for overdraft fees when it was their fault.After all planning a Party and for 13 months and saving $2,900.00 to pay the salon became a nightmare.