A great way to spend St. Patrick's Day evening. Excellent voices on the ladies and the Irish dancing was impressive. A very talented group.

My wife and I had the incredible pleasure of visiting the Van Wezel again to see the Mannheim Steamroller Xmas show. Spectacular. Our seats were in the right rear, row 24, seats 9 and 10, and they were perfect. Then again, every seat at this venue is perfect. We had no problems seeing the performers faces and the sound was spot on. Mannheim played for one full hour, took about a 15 minute break, then played another 45 minutes and did two encore songs. This years Xmas concert celebrated 41 years since the very first ‘Christmas’ album was released, playing all the music on that first release along with some tunes from the very first album ‘Fresh Aire’ release 50 years ago. We even had a little snow in the venue. Comfortable seats, a bit wider than some, even for a big guy like me. Volunteers are everywhere and guide you to wherever you need to go. There are elevators for those needing help and disabled seating areas are available. Several bars serving a variety of fluids are scattered in the venue. Free parking and plenty of it with pay valet if wanted.

This firetrap must go. The area has a huge older population that is the main support for this monstrosity. God help you if you are in a middle seat and the place has to be evacuated in a hurry. The prices for the programs are outrageous which makes Tampa that much more attractive for performances. Rising sea levels will solve the problem eveuntally. Get rid of it.

Gladys Knight was performing on this night, or should I say she was appearing to perform, because she really only mouthed the words while her backup group sang her song book. She appeared to be completely out of it. Additionally, the back up band was the worst I ever heard and Knight's mike did not work for 10 minutes of the show and no one told her until there was an uproar from the audience. I blame the Van Wezel for one of the worst performances I ever paid for.

This venue has a really terrible layout and needs to be re-done. If the usher isn't on top of what everyone is doing, many people end up on the wrong side of the theater when looking forfinding their seats because there's no center aisle and the seats on the left side and right side are numbered the same. What a terrible design! Not only is the lack of aisle space a safety concern, you're really screwed if you're toward the center and need to get up to use the restroom. You'd literally have to make 40-50 people stand up to let you squeeze by! We won't return to this venue unless/until it's renovated.