The Berglund Center is one of those gems that make the City of Roanoke a Star City. It's a multi-purpose venue that feeds the soul of our community. And the Berglund Performing Arts Theatre in the Center, with 2,150 seats, is one of my favorite places to go for entertainment in this City. Some might call it old, and some might call it small, but to me it's just perfect, since like wine, I feel its gotten better with time, and the community has gotten to know and appreciate it, as well as love it, because the performances played their have enriched their lives. This Holiday Season, as soon as the tickets to the Nutcracker went on sale, I made sure to purchase one ticket, for a front row center seat, to better appreciate the performance, since this year it's the 35th Anniversary of the Nutcracker being performed at the Berglund Center by the Southwest Virginia Ballet. This year it was being presented with a live orchestra, the Virginia's Blue Ridge Orchestra conducted by Dr. Wayne Gallops. And would have new choreography from the new Artistic Director, Laurence Blake. Sometimes when we talk about the Berglund Center, we don't realize that it is more than just the building structure, and we don't give enough credit to the employees and volunteer who play a great role in all of the performances there. They are one of the most welcoming, friendliest, and helpful group of individuals you can think of. This year I also got a VIP tour of the Center and since the day of this performance they were also having the parade downtown, I ended up receiving a personal tour and had the privilege of chatting on the stage with the founder of the Southwest Virginia Ballet as well as with the new Artistic Director of the Ballet. The Arts, in whatever form, is the soul of the people in the community. I highly recommend that you attend the performances here and give the Center and all those groups that perform here throughout the year, your total support. Because they enrich and bring joy to our lives, and by doing so, it gives meaning and a sense of satisfaction to theirs. read more

See all

Poorly organized, chaotic, inefficient, and expensive. Poor, limited parking. This place sucks so much. Will avoid coming here again. No staff giving directions anywhere, no clue which line to get in or why. To add insult to injury, while you're waiting for hours to get in (for no apparent reason), people are cutting in line and there are beer cans and trash everywhere since there are no trash cans. read more

There are limited restroom options. Only one bathroom and portables. Ugh. Cash only parking or prepaid online. There's disabled parking but you have stairs entering the seating areas. The bathroom was in another building. I had a ticket taker checking bags and he stopped me to ask if I had any guns or knives or weapons. He didn't ask anyone else. That was rude. Everyone else inside was super friendly.. the show was great. I managed to get a photo with JoKoy.. the only food are pretzels and popcorn. Eat and go before you come in. The seats themselves were comfy. They need to fix the bathroom situation and be better accessible for disabled patrons. read more

Burglund Center - Seat BB is all the way in the back even though chart makes it seem closer - Stadiums & Arenas Near Me - Roanoke, Virginia

See all

This venue has seen better days back many years ago in its prime. It's outdated nowadays and needs a refresher. Hardly ever is there a great headlining show here. The performing arts center is in better shape than the other parts of the building but overall it's just a big concrete slab with stages inside. There are a few fountains and strange statues. The carpet is old and worn. Seats are old. Stage is small. The parking situation is awful and we sat for 25 minutes in line to get in because there is only one way in and one way out. One person taking the money, which by the way parking costs $10 CASH ONLY which was stated nowhere online or on the ticket. NO bags allowed unless they're clear and under a certain size. I barely got in with my wallet after being run through a metal detector. We paid $160 for 2 tickets to A Magical Christmas Cirque which was basically a magic and variety show with a few floor acrobat acts. We left early. The only redeeming part is that the ladies selling refreshments do not know how to pour wine and filled a solo cup nearly to the brim with red wine for $12; 1/3 of a bottle. Nice bang for your buck but good luck driving home. read more

Burglund Center - Stadiums & Arenas Near Me - Roanoke, Virginia

The shows may be good, but customer service to speak with anyone at the location is ABSOLUTELY PITIFUL!! No matter what option you choose, you don't reach a person to ask a question. Their web site doesn't answer all questions, but you can't speak to anyone. Calls get hung up without any chance to leave a voicemail. Terrible service!! read more

I went to see the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" 20th Anniversary concert last night and it was a mess from the getgo. We pulled into the lot and there were parking attendants who said we either A) Needed a parking pass or B) Needed $10 cash. Who carries cash anymore in 2025? We followed a line of cars to the CreditOne beside McDonalds to get cash just for parking! Once inside the center, we went to get drinks and popcorn and they are card only! So cash only in the dark, crowded and rainy parking lot. But cashless once you go inside? Come on Berglund! The cherry on top was the bathroom situation. They were all closed for renovations and instead you had two options: 1) Go across the uncovered and raining courtyard to an adjoining building and use their restroom or 2) Use a port-a-potty, that were lined up in the rainy weather and had NO lights at all! The concert itself was marvelous but the Berglund Center failed epically from the moment we arrived until we left. You pay all that $ for a ticket and expect nice accommodations...not paying $10 for parking (which the ticket or website don't even mention) or having to use a port-a-potty that 200 other asses have touched. read more

The parking situation here is terrible. We saw Jim Gaffigan on Sept. 19. Drove three hours to this event, had great tickets, and got a nice hotel room for the night. We left the hotel in plenty of time, only to arrive at the Berglund Center to be told to drive about four blocks in the opposite direction and park in the Elmwood Parking Garage. From there, we stood in the rain and waited on a shuttle to pick us up and take us back to the venue. I still don't understand the logistics of all of this; there were empty parking spaces. Gaffigan was funny (although we arrived late) and Roanoke was beautiful. But this was by far the worst experience I have ever had as a paying customer at a large venue. I will never return. read more

James Taylor and Jackson Browne concert. Waited a year and a half. Held onto our tickets and parking pass. We arrive 45 minutes early. Nabbed one of the last few parking spots. Had to WAIT IN LINE to get in. ONE single file line that stretched around the building. ONE LINE. We finally got in half an hour after the concert started. Place was pitch black, not an usher in sight. Rows were numbered, but not the seats. We had to stumble around to find them, bothering others. Heard ONE song by Jackson Browne. This was beyond incompetent. We spent $122 on each ticket. We arrived in plenty of time and are NOT late ever. One security line? Ridiculous. We won't be back. read more

This is an ongoing disappointing experience. I will not plan to return here until it is renovated and accommodations improved. Nobody wants to get dressed up to use a restroom with puddles of water in the restrooms and in stalls. The restroom door would not open, requiring to be pulled from the top and bottom, as the door was bending. It smelled and seemed dirty. The stage is worn, with the black wearing off. The grand rag and corner curtains looked worn and worst than most neighborhood theatre. The price of the Broadway tickets to not equal the experience. Not worth it, save time and money. read more

The hockey game was great but the food was terrible. Not really much to say. Nacho chips were stale. Hotdog was not fully cooked. The pizza was trash. The sweet tea was not sweet at all. But again, I enjoyed my very first hockey game with the Roanoke Railyard Dawgs. read more

Burglund Center - Tickets - Stadiums & Arenas Near Me - Roanoke, Virginia

Stadium / Arena The Burglund center manages to get some very good acts to come to Roanoke which is pretty much a positive thing, but the place, in general, is mediocre in both acoustics and available parking. We got there early for a concert recently and not having been there before we were told by the nice guy at the parking lot that they were already full... interesting that there is not enough parking for a place that has a finite amount of seats. He told us "go down 2 lights, make a left and catch the shuttle bus". Well- as you might guess - we found nothing of the sort, worked our way back and parked across the very busy road near the post office with hundreds of others. Just terrible. To make it worse, you have to then cross that extremely busy road to get to and from the concert. Once inside, the place seemed rather tight - there was nothing but a sea of people inching by the various food concessions - no thought was given to crowd flow at all. The food concessions sucked, to be blunt. The usual cast of characters: hot dogs, nachos blah, blah, blah. The Burglund center seems to be designed to sell beer however - great stuff, if you actually like or want beer. There is beer available at all the food sellers plus beer sellers are set up all over the concourses which makes that crowd flow even worse. Yay beer... The bathrooms were functional. Seats were, for the most part, pretty good. This is a large arena for the area but make no mistake, this is no Madison Square Garden. That makes it good in that almost every seat is a good seat but at the same time, the acoustics suck. This too depends on where you are in relation to the stage and how loud the band is cranked up. Again, because it is a smaller venue- you can actually see the band, which is nice too. Overall this place is a necessary evil - great acts, shitty acoustics and forget eating anything decent is about the best way to sum it up. Get there early or you gonna be walking with the rest of the saps that had to park across the road. read more

I came to this convention center about 3 years ago and was treated to seats that were as comfortable as the English Rack. However, 3 years later I find myself ensconced in velvet comfort, for what looks like a recent remodel had made for a very comfortable VEA Convention. This may have had something to do with the fact that a recent episode of Dance Moms was filmed here (don't hate me for this guilty pleasure as the owner Abby is just pure evil and I love to hate her) In any event, the building seems much improved read more

I don't know how they do it y'all, but this place can seat like thousands upon thousands of people and not make you feel like your gonna lose your mind by sheer overload with this volume of people in one place at one time. It was more laid back then I imagined, and had plenty of helpers and vendors for snacks....so don't be afraid to come hungry! Seats aren't the most comfortable, but they'll do just fine for a few hours. I took my niece to a woman's conference here, and it was pretty insane...but good...not sure "good" and "insane" go hand in hand...but evidently at this place it does :). For anyone with vertigo issues though, beware of the slope the higher up you go for seating...it can get a little "woah...I hope I don't fall on this stranger while I am trying to get to my seat" sort of feeling at times. Other then that, this place is great. Well the parking...no comment. Ok, you dragged it out of me! You get trapped in it unless strategically parked. We decided to park across the street on a side road and that made escaping this crazy mass of women just a little bit easier, which was perfect!!!! I truly am not as anti social as I appear to be sounding right about now...but if you saw how many loud, laughing, crazy women were in this place, all at one time, you would totally know why I wanted a quick escape route when and if needed! read more

See all

This is the nastiest place I have been too in many years! It seems to get worst every year I have been going for the last 5 years straight but I guarantee this will be my last time!! The bathrooms a the worst urine an feces all over the bathroom stalls! If I pay good money for seating I don't expect the floors to be nasty like that! I also brought a parking pass to guarantee me a spot to get there an they are taking money on the spot now what was the purpose in me buying one if they was going to do that!! But I assure you I WONT GO BACK!! I also ask the ticket lady for the best seats in the house yet she gave me some awful seating for me to see over fifty empty floor seats! Now you can't tell me fifty people forgot the show was that evening!! If Tyler Perry knew the building looked as nasty as it did I don't think he would have came there to perform!!!! read more

Pretty nice place. Was there for Pokémon Regionals the bag checking wasn't very fun but after that things were pretty cool. Got locked out a side door that was supposed to be unlocked for smokers, told security they unlocked it. Hope they hold regionals there again next year! read more

This facility is a rundown dump of an arena that looks like the 1960's-1970's it hasn't been updated or replaced due to the City of Roanoke being a bunch of cheapskates and not staying current. The facility is showing its age on both the exterior and interior giving it a look that it was built many decades ago. In addition their ticketing system is a one lung affair instead of it being a nice ticketmaster facility like most modern facilities are. In addition there wasn't even 700 tickets sold to the event I went to according to a Roanoke Civic Center employees who refused to refund my ticket price because I HATED the TNA wrestling show within the 1st 10 minutes. I have NEVER walked out of a show or been told to leave in 40 years of going to events worldwide until August 16, 2013. Oh and NOWHERE on the ticket or the building nor was any announcement made before the show saying "NO video recording allowed" but they sure wanted to make a big deal about a short 5 minute video clip I took in the first 10 minutes and then throw me out over it when I mentioned that fact to them. I'm NEVER going to a show here again after this fiasco. This is the facts and I have NO reason to lie about it. Sorry Roanoke Civic Center but you need to see the light and realize your arena needs to be torn down and replaced the sooner the better hopefully. Steve Austin August 17,2013 read more

Drive 3 hours at the crack of dawn to get here for our hockey game. Arrive to find the rink (boards and glass) are yet to be completely assembled. People "working" look like the blind leading the blind. We were supposed to start at 10:30 with other teams before us. Now they're saying 3:30p. We were also supposed to play 2 games today but unlikely now... before another 3 hour ride home. read more

Burglund Center - Morons trying to figure out how to do their job several hours after it was supposed to be completed! - Stadiums & Arenas Near Me - Roanoke, Virginia

The arena that Jeff Dunham show was in has terrible seating. Spend a little money to make guests more comfortable. We were in the floor seats and they were those folding chairs like with a card table. There was no padding and if you expect people to sit for a show for 4-5 hours you need to do more with comfortable seats. Even the seats in the box and general admission seats are hard and no padding. I was hurting before he ever came out to start the show. I had to put my coat in my seat to try to be more comfortable. My rear end and legs were hurting so bad I almost couldn't make it out of the building. The seats on the shuttle bus (school busses) were more comfortable. They have had the same seating for over 25 years. Please upgrade seating. Jeff Dunham was great and after paying around $400 for floor tickets I know you can afford to do some upgrading. It is just ridiculous that you do nothing to improve your building. Worst venue I've ever been to. read more

They were very helpful to us when we visited the home show with my disabled mother. Very kind staff, eager to help!

A decent place to go for a show or to watch hockey. Food is not very good for the price paid. I wish they would get new food vendors. Parking is ridiculous and they charge for it. Unbelievable. This is an older building that they have tried to improve. The box seats are good, but the rest are uncomfortable. read more

We went to see Kevin Hart's show here. We paid for floor seats and they were the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in. We always purchase floor seats. We've gone to several arenas and coliseums, but the seats here were horrible. They were thin, metal old chairs. We also had to wait outside in the cold until 9:30 although doors were to open at 9. Not the best service. The parking is horrible!!!! read more

Screw. This. Rink. Screw it. We got up at 4 in the morning to play an 8 am game only to find out they pushed it back to 10. While driving I hear they hadn't even set up the ice for whatever reason. When we arrive they apparently have another team set up to play before us so they want to move us back to 11 or 12. 5 minutes later the rink is apparently trying to move us back to 3 in the afternoon or even 6:30 at night. This place charges five hundred dollars, yes, FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS an hour for ice time and they have the audacity to treat us like this because their employees decided to sleep in and be lazy. Message to management: fix this now. This is absurd and unacceptable. Thanks for wasting my time and robbing me of my sleep. read more

I have brought my kids here for several years for a dance competition. First, let me say that is very convenient to where we live so that is the reason I'm giving the center one star. However, my biggest complaint is the way security is handled. The options for food are very limited so every year I see people bring in food, however, when my family tries to bring food in for our dancers, I am stopped and made to feel like a criminal. I do not appreciate the way it is inconsistent. This year, I saw several people bring in Wendy's food and eating it in the lobby area but when I try to bring in food, I'm told I can't bring it in. If the concession stand sold reasonable and somewhat decent food, I would be more than happy to purchase something, but the choices are limited and overpriced. If there is an event that lasts from 9 am to 7 pm, I don't feel that the berglund center should require anyone to eat their food only. This really needs to be reviewed with management so that dance studios continue to support this event. read more

My family attended the Darius Rucker concert here, sorta. First, we went to the ticket office early but were told the tickets were not on sale but the cashier showed us a map of the venue and recommended seats since we had only been to one other concert. I arrived early on the first day of sales, was shown a totally different map and told that there were 2 seating locations available - I was totally confused as to what was going on. I asked her which of the two she recommended and bought those. When we arrived we, at first were very happy with the seats. Not too close and not too far from the stage.But, the acoustics were AWFUL! We couldn't understand anything! The first two artists that played we had never heard of and so we didn't have the advantage of knowing the words to any of the songs. After an hour and a half of waiting for Darius Rucker, finally he came out but by then we were fed up to just listening to noise. We couldn't understand anything and after 15 minutes we walked out. The same thing happened when we attended "Shrek Live". We sat in the balcony, having waited until the last minute to buy tickets. We were at the front of the balcony and, again, the acoustics were lousy. At first I thought my hearing must be worse than I thought but then my teenage daughter finally spoke up and said she couldn't hear anything. Another reviewer talked about how easy it is to smoke weed at this venue - maybe that's why more people don't complain about the acoustics. They don't care. read more