Wicomico Civic Center

The concert was amazing. However it was so hot in there. I was just sweating sitting down. It also took a long time to get into the concert. I feel bad for the people who missed Jamie macdonald sing, because it took so long to get in.

We are here for a volleyball tournament over Mother’s Day weekend. Here are some things your club should know before you ever sign up for a tournament being hosted here:

1. You may not be anywhere near your child. You must remain on another level of the building. Injury to assess? No can do. We ALWAYS form a parent line to slap hands with our girls and encourage them before and after a match. Ridiculous that we can’t do that here. It’s a no-mothers-allowed Mother’s Day in this dump.

2. You may not bring a bag larger than 5” x 7” so if you have a nice camera (which you NEED with a pretty powerful zoom feature due to being seated FAR from your kid), no way. Grandma want to bring her knitting for the work/break sessions? Nope, her bag is too big with all that yarn in it.

3. You may not bring your EMPTY water bottle in to fill at the water fountain or even to pour your venue purchased drink into to keep it colder longer.

4. Any sustenance or hydration, regardless of dietary restrictions, must be purchased at…get this…a concession stand. The athlete-fueling nutrition gold standard concession stand fare of champions. And mud water coffee at 7:30am. And the real fun part of that is the people who work there tell you this WHILE THEY ARE SIPPING THEIR STARBUCKS AND DUNKIN COFFEES!! When asked why they get to bring theirs in and we can’t, they first try to hide it and when they can’t, they say, “Well, because we work here.” Well keep that in the break room, then! Don’t flaunt it in front of all of us trying to choke down this powdered creamer stuff from the concession stand.

5. Once you are relegated outdoors to consume anything that would be considered actual food/beverage, there is zero outdoor seating or park benches or anything. There’s actually no seating inside to enjoy any of the processed “food” they’re selling, either.

I’m all for rules that are designed to keep people safe but these things all seem designed to control for the sake of controlling and/or to maximize profit. The funny thing is…I generally support the venue through purchasing snacks/waters at some point but it’s no secret that people don’t want to be forced to support your business. You’d sell way more if you relied on excellent customer service to drive business. Customer service is not a thing here and it shows.

Honestly…never come here! And tell your club sports teams not to register for any tournament that is hosted here.

I attended the TobyMac concert on Saturday, June 28, and unfortunately, my experience with the Wicomico Civic Center was one of the worst I've ever had at a concert venue.

We arrived approximately 40 minutes before the scheduled 7:00 p.m. start time, which has always been more than enough time based on previous events I've attended here. Instead, the entire parking and entry process was a complete disaster.

The secondary parking lot across the street was already full, yet there were no parking attendants directing traffic or notifying drivers before they entered. Once inside, everyone had to weave through other vehicles just to find a way back out. We eventually had to park what felt like nearly half a mile away and walk to the Civic Center.

When we arrived at the entrance with about 20 minutes before showtime, the line stretched out the doors, down the sidewalk, wrapped in an S-shape, and extended all the way across Civic Avenue. There was little to no direction from staff, and no one informed people that a second entrance was available. Had that been communicated, it could have significantly reduced the wait.

The result was that we didn't get inside until more than 30 minutes after the concert had started. We completely missed the first two opening acts, including the artist we were most excited to see.

I've attended numerous concerts and events at the Civic Center over the years and have never experienced anything close to this level of poor planning and crowd management. I don't blame the performers for starting on time—the concert was already scheduled to run until after 10:30 p.m.—but the venue should have been prepared for what was nearly a sold-out event.

A sold-out show should never result in paying customers missing part of the performance because of failures in parking management, traffic control, and entry procedures.

This experience was incredibly disappointing, and it will be a very long time before I consider attending another event at this venue.