PromoWest Fest

This festival was great. Continuous music, organized well, most acts started on time with friendly staff. I enjoyed the variety of acts from classical pop, indie rock to electronica to hip hop how many festivals have all that on the ticket! Even though the VIP ticket was pricey the overall experience mostly made up for the cost.

I only went on Sunday to see Brand New and Garbage. Brand New was fantastic! The bands all did really well with what they were given to perform. The band lineups were good and there was variety. Tickets were a little pricey for a one day pass but there were lots of bands to listen to. Plus I really would have paid the 90 bucks to just see Brand New because they are my favorite band. The layout of the festival was fairly easy to navigate and the screens at the stages were large and easy to watch and read. The location of the festival was a little on the small side but not overly packed or uncomfortable. Maybe as it grows they will move it to bigger venues. I did not however like the intellipay wristband (or whatever it was called) system to pay for merchandise and food/drinks. That's why I'm giving this 3 stars instead of 4 or 5. You had to give them money to use your money to buy their stuff and they didn't accept cash or cards directly. You had to use their wristband system as there was no other options.

Great day, lots of good bands and Snoop was amazing! The wrist bands were so convenient for making purchases. Loved the location as well. Will go back again next year for sure.

We didn't not enjoy the unnecessary divide of the crowd area. You VIP section was to big and fans were set to far away from the stage. I had lots of difficulty seeing the artist. The charged wrist band system is handy but should not be the only option. I feel this setup hurt your none food and drink vendors. There shouldn't be a fee to get back an unspent money. Larger artist should get a longer set, they all seemed very rushed. Additionally, I didn't enjoy have to continuously run from one side of a field to the other. I would much rather have artist on all stages at all times so my time isn't wasted if an artist is not my taste. Chairs should be allowed, its very painful to sit on the ground all day. Also, your website said no outside food or drink but loads of people had camel packs. This information should have been put out ahead of time.

Every moment from Friday evening to Sunday evening was amazing. My best friend enjoyed all the music, sights, sounds, beverages and food that we could at the festival sight. Every staff member, volunteer and food member was so nice and so accommodating. We can't wait to do it all again next year!!

As a regular attendee of Bunbury Festival in Cincy, I was interested to see what the first edition of PromoWest Fest had to offer. I made it to day 3. I primarily went to see Modest Mouse for the first time. I caught Black Lips, who were cool and a good opener. Modest Mouse was good, though Isaac complained a lot about his ear infection and it was probably not their best show ever. What I will remember most is J Roddy Walston and the Business' performance. They were on fire, on point, and gave me the best show I've seen all year.

Nice not having to carry money with having the bracelets loaded with money. Took tons of fees out for it though. Didn't have 3 stages like promised so less artist to see. The person I wanted to see dropped out the day before he was supposed to preform.

I love it with the setup and how well sound travel . I went Saturday only and ll Kool J did not disappoint nor did Snoop Dog And his crew. I like the wristbands and the idea behind it. The ticket price was a little high but the experience was great.

Absolutely amazing! All the bands were incredible! Brand New was unforgettable!I bought the tickets just to see them play. I had such an amazing time!

Promowest Fest was awesome. The set up was great with two stages you could navigate between to see the bands you want and not feel like you are standing in the same spot for hours on end. You can bring a blanket and sit in the middle so you are out of the crowd but still see the stage. And the food/drink vendors were awesome. Great choices! The band line up was fanstatic! There was something for everyone. I usually have a sub par experience at things like this but Promowest Fest...ya nailed it!

I went to PromoWest Fest to see see Milky Chance and while I wish their set would have been longer than an hour, it was still awesome. The event itself was in the perfect location--the heart of downtown Columbus--close to everything a weekend tourist could want to see. The vendors had beautiful jewelry, hairpieces and apparel for sale. I didn't eat or drink at PromoWest but people looked like they were enjoying the food and drink. I'm so excited to have been a part of this event and am excited about returning next year!

The music, the VIP experience, organization, food trucks, wrist bands, etc... All lived up to more than I expected

Overall I had a blast Friday night of Promowest Fest! I went primarily to see The Flaming Lips (love them!) but was also excited to see Ryan Adams (love him!). Fitz and the Tantrums put on an amazing show and I'll definitely look up their music (I kind of live under a rock when it comes to new music). I have two major complaints ... and that's what everyone wants to know about in reviews, right? 1) The stage for the sound board/sound people was very large, high up, and right in the middle of the way. I don't anything about music technicalities, but this seemed to be bigger and more obtrusive than any sound board set-up area than I've ever seen in my life. Unless you got yourself in front of it way before a performance you had no hope of seeing the stage, not even in miniature. All you saw was the back of the sound set-up place which luckily did have a screen on it, but still. I'm not one of those people who fight for the front, but it would be nice to see the stage. 2) The cashless money system. $2 to get money on the wristband, $3.50 to be refunded what I didn't spend. I've accepted the fact that you can't buy tickets anymore without service fees, and that a Bud Light will cost $6, but to make me spend money to be able to spend money? Really?!

Terrible! Mac Miller was supposed to be there and then canceled last minute. Should've got partial refund.

Venue was uncomfortable. Not appropriately handicap equipped. Over priced food and drinks with no options to use actual cash. You could only use their credit loading system which cost even more money to use. Drunken, rude people.

This is the first year for the PromoWest Fest so did not expect a perfectly run festival. The biggest problem was not properly scheduling the performers. Some acts like the Wombats should've gotten more time than a 1/2 hour. Others like Ryan Adams got a full hour plus a slot on the main stage just before the headliners (Flaming Lips). Fitz & the Tantrums should've been in that slot! Plus the headliner was not scheduled to start until 10pm. Knowing there was an 11pm curfew at that venue, that was not nearly enough time for the Flaming Lips! Making things worse, they didn't have enough time to set up for their elaborate stage show so didn't actually come on until 10:15, then promptly had to quit at 11...so they only did about half of their normal show...very disappointing!

Great lineup, great schedule, flaming lips were the best show of the weekend.

Lineup was varied and headliners were very good. Plenty of local food and drink options, along with some interesting shops. There was plenty of bathrooms and vendors so waiting in line was minimal. Only complaints were having all the bathrooms on only one side of the festival was a bit annoying, and making everyone with a 3 day pass exit out one location was bothersome. Love the bracelet ticket and electronic payment system. No cash was fantastic!

PromoWest didn't pull it off, not even close. Beautiful weather, nice grass, good sound, good beer selection and food selection....that's the good news. Now the bad news: cancelled acts, shortened setlists, not enough stages (3 were promised), not enough bands, wristband fees, forgetting to have people get over 21 wristbands when they came in, overly large VIP area, too high prices for tickets. Overall, well worth it for $50, but not $90. Doubt most attendees will come back next year. That's a shame because Columbus could definitely support a quality music festival.

I know this is the first year for the event. Overall it went smoothly. I thought the timing was good between stages and bands. I think the venue is kind of strange but really aren't too many options in that area with downtown Columbus. The wristband payment was nice and fast. Don't like the surcharges on getting money there and back. Great selection of beers. Food selection could have been better. Saw no benefit really to being VIP other than closer to the bands which is not why most people go to festivals. Clean. Bathroom line wasn't insane. Line up was good. 3 stars.

Between the insanely high-priced drinks and the illegal cigarette smoking, I'll never go again.

Took my 16 year old son Logan to see PromoWest Fest Day one 7/15/16. Loved all the bands, but my two favorites were Ryan Adams and The Flaming Lips! The Flaming Lips performance was not just a concert, it was a Religious Experience! I hope next year Meg Myers and local band Angela Perley and the Howlin' Moons will perform at PromoWest Fest year two! mo

First year for this festival. I was there Friday night. The good.... I'm not a Flaming Lips fan so I didn't even stay for that show. X Ambassadors, Fitz and the Tantrums, Noel Gallagher and Ryan Adams were all excellent with Noel G having a standout set. The Venue was nice but long and narrow. There wasn't a huge crowd and that's a good thing because the space really won't support a large crowd. If they want the festival to grow they are going to have to move it. Decent craft beer and food selection The Bad...... The 1.5 hour wait to get my wrist band that made me miss The Wombats and the first half of X Ambassadors. After the struggles that PromoWest had with this at Bunbury in 2015, its pretty amazing that they didn't get this right. Just not enough ticket Windows open to handle the early rush. The Cashless system. In a word....bad. Its a royal pain. The people at the booths were little help and could not help with simple tasks like combining wrist bands on a single account or setting auto top off. The web site was painful. It didn't scale properly on my Android phone and crashed twice when I tried to register my band in order to set up auto top off, causing me to just give up on it. The fees are ridiculous and an insult.

Great lineup (despite a lot of dropouts and no-shows) and sweet set-up. The cashless wristband option made things easy at the moment of purchase, but was a bit annoying when I was like two dollars short and had to go refill when I had, you know, actual money on hand.

Pretty good showing for this being a first time festival. The good: - Solid lineup - Venue/bathrooms stayed clean throughout - Lots of great food and drink choices - Staff and security were easy-going and friendly The bad: - Some sets were 30 minutes long. I understand you need to keep it moving with some of the smaller acts, but that's like 6 songs for some bands, assuming that they never so much as stop to speak to the crowd. - The wristband "top up" system was a great idea with horrible execution. Let's start with the obvious cash grab: $2 "convenience fee" (for something no one wanted in the first place), and any unused funds on the wristband would be refunded LESS a $3.50 fee. Then add in the fact that it was a huge pain to reload your card once in the festival, and the result is my friends and me buying way fewer beers than we probably would have. In addition to this, there were plenty of moments where I would have left a tip for the vendors, but for the fact that I didn't have enough funds on my card to do so. Just link the wristband directly to credit cards (like other festivals have done) to solve pretty much all of these problems.