Marshall Arena Milton Keynes reviews by real event-goers
Reviews of Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes
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Showing the latest reviews from all events held at Marshall Arena.
Review of WAH Halloween at Marshall Arena
Good music, good sound system, queued 40 min for the toilets, outside area was not big enough until they eventually opened it up which should have happened earlier, not enough bars
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Would you recommended: No |
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Review of 00's and 90's Halloween Indoor Festival
The show itself was great, but as a disabled visitor, sadly the venue was extremely poorly run.
The listings for the show stated the times as "7pm-1am" so we (along with everyone else there it seemed) assumed that meant the show would start at 7 and the doors would open before then.
Instead, we turned up at 6:15 to be told by security staff the doors would not open until 7 and to join the queue, but as a mobility scooter user nobody seemed too certain which queue I should be in to gain access to the building.
This was eventually worked out and we took our places in a queue to wait the 45 mins in the cold, only for the group queuing behind us to be joined with five minutes to go by a number of their friends climbing over the fence and jumping the people queueing behind them! One security guard made a halfhearted attempt to prevent them, then they were ignored, much to the protests of other people who had been waiting for a while.
The doors eventually opened at ten past 7, and the pace at which people were let in was glacial, largely down to the fact that only two members of staff were on the spot to scan tick*ts and hand out wristbands and the staff inside who were tasked with bag searches were standing chatting and mucking about rather than processing people quickly.
Once we were finally inside, there was one small accessible viewing platform on the other side of the arena from the entrance/exit, so we made our way as quickly as we could to that. It very rapidly became dangerously overcrowded since the sole staff member was allowing groups up there who may have been disabled but were standing the whole time through the show (not the point of the raised viewing platform) and also allowing people who were supposed to be up there to bring three -four friends up with them, meaning there ended up being too many people on the platform and those who needed it were being turned away. For my own purposes, I was trapped with my scooter and there was no way of me getting it off the platform when I needed to use the toilet, go to the bar etc. Fortunately I am able to stand/walk short distances, but other wheelchair uses on the platform were trapped completely due to the overcrowding.
The toilets were also a fair distance away, and the disabled toilets did not use the standard radar key system, but a pin key instead. I had to ask a security staff member how to unlock them and he had no clue - he had to go and find a member of the venue staff who had the key. If a disabled person has to ask to be let into the toilets, they are not fully accessible, and being made to wait while a key is located is also entirely unreasonable since many disabled facility users are unable to wait for the toilet meaning they could have accidents which are extremely distressing. I said to the member of staff who eventually showed up and opened the toilet for me that a key holder needs to be stationed in the area at all times and all staff need to know where the key is, but he just shrugged at me and walked off.
We decided in the end it would be safer to leave before the end of the show to avoid getting stuck in the main crowd trying to leave when it was over, but as I have said my scooter was unable to be driven off the platform due to the number of people packed onto it - fortunately for me I was in my folding one and my partner had to fold it up and carry it above his head to get it off the platform, where it was then unfolded so I could leave the building. We were then stopped from using the door when we had entered the venue and instead directed to another exit which was much further away from the accessible parking where we had left our car.
The MK Stadium website has an entire section stating they are "proud to be one of the most accessible venues in the UK" - I strongly suggest they consider the experience of actual disabled visitors to their venue, and any further events put on by the organisers of this one should look for a venue that is usable and safe for all attendees.
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Would you recommended: No |
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Review of WAH Halloween at Marshall Arena
Dreadful venue... £9.50 for a single g&t and not even ice and lemon in it. Queued for 45 min to get in... just no atmosphere. Vomit throughout the ladies bathroom floor. Almost 40min queue for the bathroom. Saw the same DJs at Drumsheds two weeks ago, couldn't begin to compare the events... never keeping LDN again!!!
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Would you recommended: No |
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