The BayCare Sound

I honestly thought this was one of the coolest concert venues I have been to! The reserved seats are comfortable and spacious with cup holders. All of the food/drink vendors were friendly (high prices but to be expected). The bathrooms are clean! Parking can be easy or difficult, depending on how much you are willing to pay.

Although a mid sized venue, you can still get close enough to the performance to count their nose hairs. (Not that you would, just sayin')Food and drink are pretty overpriced, but that's to be expected.Plenty of REAL bathrooms, so that is a "plus!"

Gorgeous venue! There is not a bad seat in the house. lSuper fans have a chance to be front row in the pit while those who opt to sit can purchase assigned seats. There's also the lawn in the back for blankets and picnic people. It's just the right size too, which draws the musicians I am typically a fan of. The only drawback with this venue is the amount of time you'll spend standing in line to do anything. Getting in, going to the bathroom, getting a drink... Expect to wait in a single file line forever. Purchase all your drinks at once and hold it till after the show ;)

It was easy to get in and out. This is a great venue without the chaos of the MidFlorida amphitheater. The food trucks have a nice selection to choose from. Food and drink reasonable priced for a venue. The lawn area looked nice, although you have to sit higher on the hill to see the stage. The seats under the amphitheater are just folding style seats. While not super comfy, the aisle were spaced well enough that it was you could stretch out a bit. The snack shacks and food trucks all had good service. TIP: there was a restroom trailer on the south side by the food trucks. Great way to beat the restroom lines that form.

After two concerts spaced a year apart this continues to be a cluster of frustration. Who is managing this venue? The staff are very nice but their policies continue to reflect clueless on making your customers happy. My latest concert was UB40. They sent a reminder text earlier in the day that said music started at 6p; which was helpful. It required I respond to the text so I would receive important updates. Travel was over an hour to get there. TIP: street parking is free after 6p on weekdays! The neighboring lot was charging $20, so get there early. Arrived at the gate where they advised opening act Maxi Priest was canceled and that refunds could only happen prior to ticket scan. Regardless on whether I responded to the earlier text, this key change should have been sent via text as soon as they learned Maxi Priest couldn't make it. Equally frustrating: Prior to the concert I had taken the time to learn about bag size and learned they had changed their policy last year that allowed one sealed water bottle per person to keep people from passing out (concert is in August so it was sweltering). Security searched the clear bag and told us NO plastics are allowed in the venue. When I mentioned to the gate manager this had changed last year, the response was "this changes from event to event". Huh? So every event everyone has to call Ruth Eckerd staff beforehand to ask whether they're going to allow one bottle of water? Other people at the gate were being rejected, so this is a common misconception. You can bring an empty METAL drink container to refill with lukewarm tap water at stations next to the bathrooms.Inside the waters are sold in a can for $6. The brand is "Liquid Death". I'm not making this up! How appealing when the feels like temperatures are near 100 degrees. Several people passed out during the event and needed to be stretchered on their backs to several ambulances parked outside the gate. Again, who is making decisions restricting plastic water bottles? Does someone need to die before they come to their senses?The venue still has the problem of viewers facing directly into the setting sun for portions of the concert. So bring your hat and sunglasses because even though there is a cover over seating, it doesn't help at dusk. Also recommend bringing a fan or hand towel. Some people brought battery powered fans. There is space between rows but chairs are too close together. Cup holders are only every other chair (why?). Bathrooms were clean.Just inside the gates are approximately six food trucks. Pizza, kielbasa, Korean fusion and burgers. Prices are roughly $15 to $18 just for the main entree. Fries are extra. They also have a dessert truck and Ben and Jerrys inside by the seating. Another problem is they only have approximately five tables to eat at once you get your food. How does that make sense?

I've changed my mind! I went to one of the first shows here and i thought to myself self such bad planning for having the stage face West which on this hot and humid Florida day allowed the sun to beat down and shine on our eyes. It was frustrating and grueling! I still feel there needs to be some kind of shade or screen built to rectify this really uncomfortable problem. We got past that and you'll realize how pretty the venue and grounds are. Security as well as the ushers were extremely friendly and helpful as well. The most important two aspects were the seating design and the ability it allows to see the stage from every seat. In case people stood during the concert the large projection screens were of amazing quality providing 4k possibly 8k HDR Viewing with no loss or distortion whatsoever. The second aspect and the most important is the acoustic design that was well planned and engineered. I'm an audio and video geek and I have been to concerts all over The Northeast as well as all over Florida, The sound is truly amazing! Many artists have publicly commented on the Sound being there favorite performance venue because of the audio quality included in this group are Ringo Starr and members of the Bare Naked Ladies and many more as well. There's a nice choice of top performers here as well. Nice venue for a city the size of Clearwater!

Beautiful venue, close to the water. Parking in the area isn't great ($20) and the seats are not particularly comfortable so being a towel to sit on, but otherwise the sound is excellent and, let's face it, when you're seeing a 50th anniversary tour of a rock band, the band members resemble George Washington more than a 1970s hippie so just enjoy the sound!

Not sure what I was expecting but I was more than a little underwhelmed. I'd say the main issue was the heat vs ventilation vs packed seating. I felt like I was at the strawberry festival, minus a breeze of some sort. The chairs were uncomfortable and packed tightly together so if you were unlucky enough to sit next to someone who weighed 300+ lbs, you basically had no seat at all. That made it uncomfortable for all parties involved. The price f the tickets would lead you to believe you would have amphitheater seating. Nope. And the chairs weren't even staggered so since you were on flat artificial turf, you could even see the stage, just the back of the person in front of you. And ventilation...well there were about 4 ceiling fans about 30-40 feet up, so not sure what purpose they served but the thought was there. And then there was the bottled water sales. Oh wait, sorry, no bottled water, just cans. Okay I get what the green people are saying about plastic but I'm not drinking water out of a can. You can't convince me. If you're not selling bottled water, at least allow us to bring our own. The only reason I gave this place more than one star was the acoustics. The sound was great. Perfect noise level too. Not sure if the kudos should go to Ringo & his band, or if The Sound was responsible for balancing it out. So would I go back? Yes, maybe in January or February when it's 20 degrees cooler, and the tickets were a whole lot less expensive than I'd pay at another venue.

Great location, sound was great, and seating arrangement is excellent! Was able to find parking close by.

Amazing concert venue near the water. Great acoustics. Went with 3 friends and had up front seats so we were under cover. Food & beverage trucks available. 2 entrances. Bag policy in effect. Pretty chilly night we went would recommend some of those patio heaters in the common areas. Only downside is parking. They need a designated parking garage or area for the venue.