Fishers Event Center – An Honest Review
Here’s the TL;DR – The parking’s a mess, the food was meh, Lindsey Stirling was on point, and the Event Center has a bright future if it can fix a few things.
I don’t believe in feedback sandwiches or anything like that. Let’s just call this the MPF review. Main event. Parking. Food. There’s a lot more I could include but my guess is this is what most people will care about.
Also, this post sort of assumes you know what the new Fishers Event Center is. If not: it’s a brand new mid-size stadium located right behind Ikea on 116th/I-69.
Main Event: Lindsey Stirling
Just incredible. Seeing Lindsey Stirling was a blessing. The violin hits different live. It reminded me of a Vegas show.
💡Pro tip: Side seats might be the move here. Our section had armrests; heard the floor seats didn’t. Plus the view was solid. You can see what those seats look like from the attached pics.
The FEC holds 7,500 people, but it feels smaller than you’d expect – in a good way. Whoever booked Lindsey Stirling deserves a raise!
My feedback to the venue is their website only says to arrive early with no other context. 1 hour? 2 hours?
Even Ticketmaster keeps it vague and there were no emails post-purchase explaining doors open, parking info, etc.
We decided to wing it and grab drinks at Tiburon, figuring we’d get there at 8 (showtime) to barely make any openers.
That worked out perfectly for us – but it would have been nice to know exactly when to do a last call.
Having a custom sign made for the concert was neat. I wonder who gets to keep that. Maybe save it for her to come back? Hah.- You can take photos in front of this
- Her Grinch song
Parking
Here’s something wild: 40% of how fans feel about an event comes down to parking. And right now, that’s not great news for the FEC.
Is it true here? Yes. 27 of the 58 reviews they have mentioned parking. The math is mathing perfectly here. That’s 46.5% if you don’t want to pull out a calc 😂
So how do we fix this? I would…
- Stop making people pay for parking separately. Just build it into the ticket price.
- Figure out how to speed up the whole process. Maybe staff some areas to help move and direct cars?
We actually lucked out by being “late” – rolling in right at 8 when Lindsey started. Which meant missing the initial parking chaos. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to park.
Leaving was a different story.
Here are our post-show car stats:
- 10 minutes to get from our seats to our car
- 38 minutes to move from our parking space
- Once we did move, it took 3 minutes to exit the venue area and be on 116th
= 51 minutes from seat → 116th
So once we got moving it was pretty much home free.
I don’t go to enough events like this to have a good comparison, but it felt like forever waiting to just move and it became the talk of the car instead of how awesome the show was.
Food
I was invited to a media tasting a week before the FEC officially opened. The food and presentation was spectacular (can we normalize saying this word more?).
The story behind what they served was locally sourced meat, elevated classics, chef curations. Everything beyond what you’d expect from an event center.
Here are some photos:
My actual event experience was very different. Here’s the summary:
- Hot dogs, brats, pizza, and cheesesteaks were all I could find
- I chose dogs and brats, and they were cold
- Buns hard enough to use as weapons
- $15 for the privilege
- Bonus: A tip prompt for using their self check-out. I’m all for tipping in the right setting but this process in some sections is 100% automated.
My guess is the better food I had at the tasting was either on the second floor (where I didn’t go) or the VIP area. Or maybe they just weren’t serving high-end options for this concert.
Here is my free million-dollar idea: Portillos is literally across the street. They’re the best ranked American spot in Fishers. Someone needs to make a collab happen 🔥
Expectation
Reality
Was it worth it?
Yes.
There are certainly some kinks I would try to improve if I were running the show, but nonetheless, it was a great way to spend a night with family and friends.
It’s so cool that we have this type of attraction. I’m hyped to go to more events that aren’t downtown Indy.
