Hersheypark Stadium

I’ve attended only one type of event here, numerous PIAA Football Championships, with the latest being in 2015. To start, the Football Championships hard free parking, but many others don’t. Hersheypark Stadium has a large amount of parking, so that’s not an issue. Ticket booths are located between the Grand Stands.
This year had one new surprise; full metal detectors were used when entering, but they had four lines running to prevent backlogs. Hersheypark Stadium is huge and there are very few bad seats, with an excellent turf field. Stadium has several issues though, that as a venue make it unattractive. To start, everything is located under the grandstands in somewhat tight space. The bathrooms, while clean, are not the largest. For the PIAA game, they also did not have enough of them open. Perhaps the biggest thing would be to eat before you come here. In the past, I have not been impressed by the food selection and inflated prices. This year’s selection seemed even more limited than others, and with the Wendy’s being right down the road, you can avoid being gouged.
Hersheypark Stadium is not a terrible place to see a game, but the facilities are dated, and it would not be my first choice to see an event at. The whole venue could use a major reconstruction, but I don’t see that happening.

A decent venue for a concert or event but a bit outdated. Don’t expect anything like the more modern venues or bigger ones across the coast. Hershey is a smaller venue and almost historical at this point. It does seat 30,000 but feels a bit smaller and more intimate. Parking is fairly easy as the lot is the same as the park and Chocolate World, but you do have to pay.

It’s much easier just to supply the condensed version of an email I sent to Hershey Stadium Services (with whom I will be chatting with tomorrow in response to the complaint)…
«I have found your venue to be ill-​organized and many of your usher/​security staff unprofessional.
I attended the Maroon 5 concert (8÷15÷15) with three friends and was a assaulted by one of your older female ushers in the field seating area. This staff member grabbed my arm and yanked me backward while I was heading for the bathroom/​food area under main sections 1 – 8. She did it because she ASSUMED that I was heading towards an area cleared as a big aisle/​walk space between the first few rows of field seating (A-​H?) and the rest of field seating/​standing room area. (Other people had continuously tried to stand in/​block this walk way.)
To be clear, this occurred between acts. I was walking in an AISLE way, separating the (left side of the) second half of field seating (I-​P?) and the standing room area. I am now going to refer to this aisle as A1.
The only two options from where we were standing, were to walk towards the stage or away from it in order to find an aisle to allow you to exit to the sides. The aisles that exited to the sides were either the big walk space (A2), as mentioned earlier, or the area behind the last row of field seating (A3). Considering that people, including this usher were blocking us from walking towards the back, we chose to walk in the direction of the stage. There were other people STANDING and WALKING in this same aisle way. There was no sign or any usher saying that you cannot walk in this direction in order to exit the floor. There were ushers up at the head of the standing area, keeping people from blocking A2. There was absolutely no reason to target me.
I was following my friends, making me the caboose. As soon as I entered A1 from the standing area, she began following me, yelling, „do you have seats here?!“ she repeated this THREE times. Each time I responded with my intentions but continued forward until she grabbed my arm from behind with enough force that I tripped backward. At this point I told her yes, so she would let me go.
My friends, as well as people standing nearby witnessed this the interaction.
She then continued to follow me until I entered, and subsequently, exited A2. Again, there were plenty of other people walking in this aisle. Any loiterers were sent away by the other ushers already guarding A2.
There was and is no excuse for the assault. I was not breaking any rules.
With or without having seats in the field area, I was fully within my rights to use A1 to exit the floor. It was an aisle way intended for use. QUESTIONING, not assault, would have only been necessary had I loitered in an area I was not suppose to be in.
Also, unbeknownst to your staff member, I was /​still am recovering from a neck injury (I incurred earlier in the week), which was aggravated by the assault.
While this incident is certainly the most important reason for choosing not to return to your venue, it’s not the only one.
As I said before, this venue is completely unorganized. For instance, my group arrived at the field seating area early, and stood in the standing room area as designated by the ushers at 6:11pm. By 6:34 pm, other people ignored the invisible line, and the ushers did nothing. By 6:45pm, the invisible line had changed, and the ushers moved only a fraction of those people back. By 7pm, more people arrived, ignoring the new line again. Ushers did nothing. It was not until the end of the first act that the ushers decided on a new line, and pushed people behind that. At that point there were enough people in front of us that when they pushed back, people like us, who were there first, were moved from their original spots.
Ushers and security also do nothing when people decide to sit on each others shoulders and block the view of people behind them. Which is also a liability issue. »

Pros: Small enough to see your favorite artist relatively close. Ample parking.
Cons: Pretty much everything else.
I was here for the mixtape festival the end of June 2015. Unfortunately it was raining… HARD and this outdoor venue was not prepared to handle the quantity of people. Lines for beer/​drinks/​food were an hour. The women’s bathroom wait was also about an hour and the Port-​A-​Potty had what looked to be raw sewage flowing from the over saturated ground/​area. It was a disaster. Just walking from your seat to the concession stand was a wait.
Sound was standard and held up in the bad weather pretty well. One of the performers, TLC, was a no-​show and no announcement was made. (This might have been a lack of judgement from the MixTape festival management)
Their parking is not situated to handle the crowd either. While going in you have plenty of space to park if you are willing to walk — The wait to get out was about an hour. We finally begged an attendant to open another entrance which helped the situation but the line on the other side looked to be an additional hour to get out.
This stadium is obviously dated and according to
it was built in 1939. It needs to be torn down to accommodate capacity and current technology.
Hershey Park is amazing and I recommend the amusement area. However, I would never attend a concert at Hershey Park Stadium again.

Saw Kelly Clarkson and pentatonix there. The venue is large and never felt overly crowded. Parking was fine. It was easy to get in and out of. The only thing I’d do differently was bring stadium seats with a back. But that could be just because I’m old.

Went here for the Kelly Clarkson concert with my girl friend on 7÷11÷15 (because I just love Kelly). Besides a lack of signs and direction of where to park for the concert, traffic was pretty usual for a larger concert. You just need to drive around the stadium and eventually you’ll find where they want you to park. This is frustrating being from out of town.
Seating was rather poor. 40 fold out chair seats across so you are potentially climbing over 20 people to get to your seat. If you are going to a concert later in the evening do not get seats to the right of the stage (facing the stage) to avoid having the sun in your eyes until it goes down. The only redeeming feature of the stadium is they have vendors in the back with a good variety of food. The stadium itself is rather dirty and undesirable.
Overall there are so many better venues, especially from the Pittsburgh area. I’m not sure what is around Hershey but if there is a band you want to see coming to town, avoid Hersheypark stadium. Never want to come here for a concert again.

Hershey corp owns this town:… Why can’t they get traffic out of these events in a timely manner …

Just saw Jimmy Buffet along with 30,000+ parrot heads. FYI sitting on the field you will stand the whole concert. After the concert be prepared to sit in the parking lot for over an hour trying to get out. Tailgate after the concert instead of fighting the traffic.

I did not experience the same issues as others did, when I saw Fall Out Boy and Paramore this weekend. Then again, I planned ahead and read through the tripadvisor and Unilocal reviews before I went to the concert. The venue itself was pretty dated, as others said. It could definitely use some updated seating. But the sound was amazing, and I’ve been to several venues of every type, theaters, clubs, etc… It sounded great!
The key to not getting stuck in this supposed «2 hours of traffic», is to not park at the stadium. I also avoided $ 12 parking fee using this method. Park down the street at Tanger Outlets, or the Wendy’s next to it and take the 8 or 9 minute walk, if you can. It was so much easier than parking anywhere near the stadium. I also left the show right before the last song, so I could get out and avoid the mob scene that was described in previous reviews. I didn’t miss out on the concert by leaving early, either. You can still hear the performance outside of the venue when you’re walking to your car.
I still think that the venue could use a re-​design, to avoid issues with overcrowding of the exits at the end of the show. But all-​in-​all, I had a great time at Hersheypark Stadium and I will be returning for a show in the future!

These folks are really doing the best they can with what they have which is why I’m giving the stadium 4 stars. Building a stadium in the middle of a high tourist attraction area doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea to begin with, but hey you gotta with it!
The stadium was clean. There were employees everywhere to answer questions. Concession stands were open AND people were selling items inn the stands! It was easy to get around as well. The stage placement was odd to me and didn’t quite match the seating arrangement, but it wasn’t the worse I’ve ever been too.
If you want to avoid some of the craziness of leaving, wait to go to your car. If you’re in a rush, leaving is going to irritate you. Walking back across the street to the car took a considerable about of time as a result of crossing traffic lights. Seriously though at what major concert\event is traffic not backed up? This isn’t an anomaly.
As a side note, Fall Out Boy was amazing! Paramore did great, and the opening band, New Politics, had great energy.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet, the complete opposite of my experience there.
Basically, don’t go to a concert here. Go for the Park itself, but certainly not the stadium, unless you get there rrreally early and park super close. There is ONE road that goes in and out of this place! It took an eternity to get in and out. I was falling asleep because we weren’t moving. Lucky for us, we were there to see Bruno Mars. So I had a few hours of fun where I forgot about the mess. Such a terrible experience I would not wish upon anyone. :(The bathrooms we passed on the walk to the Stadium were okay, minus the crazy webs of spiders hanging above our heads (omg!). But to be fair, the Hershey Park Stadium itself was an okay venue. Plenty of f&b vendors around for you to satisfy your craving before/​during the show. Nonetheless, I don’t think I’ll return the Stadium. The Park, yes. The Stadium, no.

I came to see Bruno Mars and overall had pretty great experience. I was travelling with my dad who has a wheelchair, so handicap accessibly was crucial. Buying the handicap tickets was easy and once we got to the stadium the attendants were pretty helpful, despite nothing being labeled for handicap accessibility. We left the handicap parking decal hanging in the window so they directed us to the right parking area, which was right next to the stadium entrance. Now I’m sure when they initially built this they didn’t really think about pushing wheelchairs around because it’s on a fairly steep hill. I managed and a couple of attendants offered to help pushing my dad into the stadium. The handicap seating area was not properly designated so it took a few minutes to find an attendant to explain how to get there. We had to enter the stadium from section 1 and go down to section 8 to get to the handicap accessible area. Fortunately they had a handicap exit at section 8 for use during the concert and restrooms just near there. They had bathrooms throughout the stadium plus additional porta-​potties. Seeing as everyone decided to wait in the long lines to use the stadium bathrooms, there were no lines for the porta-​potties and they were pristine. They didn’t smell dreadful and they were virtually spotless from low traffic. We also bought some food and drinks in the stadium and I found the prices to be pretty reasonable. I mean $ 10 for a funnel cake and 2 bottles of water is pretty good in my book. They definitely need to work on their traffic system exiting the stadium because we definitely took about 2 hours to get out of there. It also doesn’t help that the concert finished at the same time that the park closed, so you probably had a mix of concert goers and park visitors leaving at the same time. They should work on not having those times overlap, so you have less traffic problems. Overall Bruno Mars was fabulous and it was great to see him at this venue. I’d consider coming back for another concert for sure!

Saw Bruno Mars here the other night. Sounded great, but couldn’t see a thing. The screens on either side of the stage were very low and should have been raised up so people that weren’t directly in the front had something to see. To make it worse people were standing in between the aisles of seats, which made it even more difficult to see.

I sent my wife and daughter to Bruno Mars on July 12 2014. The concert was awesome until 2 seat crashers blocked my 10 year old daughter view. My wife asked the people to find there seats and the man told her to F off. The confrontation went on 5 minutes until my wife had to get security over to assist. The people was eventually kicked out because they did not belong in row. 10. I would think when you buy ticket for that price the security should be able to keep people in there correct section.. Last time for this venue. They said Bruno was great !

Flew into town for the Bruno Mars show. Was in section 8 so we had good sightlines. Can’t imagine the view from the back of the venue. Monitors off the side of the stage were low. Bathrooms near section 8 had 5 stalls and no ac. Hellish getting out of the parking lot. Took a good 30 minutes and we even left before the encore to beat the rush. Traffic control was nomexistent. Parking was $ 12. Luckily it didn’t rain since they didn’t allow umbrellas.

Went here for the Jay-​Z/​Justin Timberlake Legends of Summer show at the Hershey Park Pavilion on August 4, 2013. Solid experience and great show (bring earplugs to cut the edge off, if you want to take care of your hearing).
After reading past reviews and receiving some local advice, we parked in town south of the park/​stadium around Chocolate Avenue, NOT in the designated stadium parking. We only had a 20 – 30 minute walk to our car and NO traffic getting back to our lodging.
The park/​stadium MUST redesign their parking exit strategy to help expedite their patrons… or provide free candy to those waiting 1 – 2 hours to get out of the lot.

My friend and her friend’s thirteen year old son and I went to the Jay-​Z/​Justin Timberlake Legends of Summer show at the Hershey Park Pavilion on August 4, 2013.
We live about four hours away so after checking in at our hotel and then arriving outside Hershey Park about an hour before the show started, we were a bit tired but very excited for the show. Firstly, it’s incredibly confusing to find out where parking is. We were communicating with other cars while inching forward to compare information about what might be the right way to go. We ended up getting directed to a lawn parking lot across the street from the Park. It was free, which is nice, but then there was a good two-​mile hike across all terrain: gravel, grass, straw, concrete, a four-​lane highway, cement paths, more gravel and then we finally got to the entrance. I was ill-​prepared for this since I have rheumatoid arthritis and don’t generally go on two-​mile late-​night jaunts in the dark. But we made it, were escorted to our seats and settled in. The seats in the stands are just bleachers, perhaps one-​half step up from the ones in our local high school stadium. The people on the field had folding chairs, which I imagine was also fun. The vendors are set up outside the stadium in traditional ways and then, also, inside the stadium in a way that reminded me of a local county fair setup — food trailers that sold drinks, cotton candy and hot dogs.
The show was really great and the sound was pretty phenomenal, considering the fact that they must pump all of their money into that system because it’s not really evident anywhere else in the 30,000-seat capacity place. Or maybe Jay-​Z and Justin Timberlake’s people brought good sound equipment. Who knows.
Afterwards, there was another two-​mile hike back and there was no real organization for how to get that many people back to their cars or, even, how to safely get people across that four-​lane highway to the majority of parking. There were non-​helpful but plentiful amounts of security people making sure no one stumbled into the path of the musicians’ buses and trucks leaving the venue but basically just two police officers guiding hundreds of people across a busy highway in the dark with no clear understanding of where cars were coming from or going to. I can’t believe this place hasn’t been upgraded or, at least, downsized to accomodate smaller acts. I won’t ever recommend anyone go here again and we are seeing Justin Timberlake again this fall — but in Pittsburgh.

I went to the stadium for the Mixtape Festival this past weekend. It was a two day event. Friday the parking was fine and we had no problems. The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert. The second day however, was a different story. The parking situation was completely different and completely unorganized. It took us almost an hour just to find a decent parking spot. It was raining cats and dogs which made the task even more difficult. We were not allowed to bring umbrella or towels inside the stadium (did I mention it was pouring)? Overall the stadium itself was fine. We had seats on the the field and were able to see the stage with no problem. The concert makes up for any short comings of the venue, it was phenomenal.

My review is based on a visit to the outdoor Stadium only.
I visited the stadium for the first time yesterday for the One Direction concert. It was definitely not a rowdy crowd, but the security had everything under control, especially during the concert. They made sure everyone obeyed all the rules (like no standing on chairs or blocking views with signs), making the concert quite enjoyable. They were a bit gruff, but I’m giving them a pass as it was hotter than belief all day, and dealing with obsessed, hormonal teenage fan girls can’t be easy. (For note, I am not one of them!)
The stadium itself was a bit outdated. There were more than enough food vendors with all sorts of items, and the lines were pretty bearable. Even the bathroom lines were quick! The sound was pretty great, and we had great sight lines from the floor.
The one downfall is the parking lot. Because there are few exits, it took us two hours to even get to the traffic light, not even a half-​mile away. By the time we got home we were exhausted! However I wouldn’t hesitate to return, I would just be much more prepared for a very long wait in the lot.

This review is for Hersheypark Stadium only. I’ve never been to the arena.
I’ve been to Hersheypark Stadium for high school band competitions and football games. It’s a great venue for both but has a tendency to be a wind tunnel.
The stands are made of concrete and go from endzone to endzone on both sides of the field. The stadium stands hold several thousand people and you can get midway up and still have a great view of the field.
The field itself has been upgraded in recent years to turf instead of grass.
The stadium is used heavily in November and December for band competition championships of the Cavalcade of Bands and Tournament of Bands organizations and by PIAA football playoffs. It’s the PIAA District 3 Championship site in addition to other playoff games.
Great place for such an old stadium.