Great place to visit some local businesses! I started of at this little refreshment stand and was able to score an Ice Coffee for only $2 (Great Value). Next walked around the port seeing the different boat rides you can take (whale watching, fishing, ferry) and a lot of seafood restaurants. I managed to meet some local artists (amazing pieces at VERY reasonable prices). Many lovely gift shops with a wide range of prices and items. There appears to be a ton of places with live music at night but I was only there during the day. Parking is something you should scope out in advance as you will need to pay and prices vary with the cheapest I saw being all day for $20. I personally paid $8hr so ended up being $20 in a garage. read more

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Enjoyable Music Venue We just went to see Primus and Clutch. I have never been to the pier. I think it was an awesome place. It is very small so you can get very close and are able to see the stage and band very well.The tickets are cheap because it is a smaller venue, I think we paid $50 per ticket. We were 6 or 7 rows from the front and it was so good. There is a lot to do on the waterfront in Portland so you can spend several hours before the show to eat and shop. There is plenty of parking, most of the places charge $10.00 but it gets you very close to the entrance. Thanks read more

This is a lousy concert venue. Easily the worst venue in Portland. I dont know whose bright idea it was to establish this place as a place to see music but it was a terrible one. Its way too narrow. The sightlines are awful. The GA concrete layout dips downward in various locations including the middle / rear of the footprint. Not good, not good at all. The sound quality and speaker towers leave a lot to be desired. Worst of Portland?... Yes, yes it is. It's not working. Come up with a better idea / solution. read more

I'm not sure what all the negative reviews are for, we attended the Melissa Etheridge concert here on Saturday night and it was great. We had 4th row aisle seats, and the view of the stage was perfect, the stage is really high so honestly I don't think front row would be worth it unless you're standing for the entire show. Security was pretty good throughout most of the show, they kept the aisles clear and made people go back to their seats when they were trying to sneak up closer. That is, until the last half hour of the show, when it seemed they had just given up. By the last 3 songs, everyone had rushed the stage and security looked confused, I even saw one guy mouth to another security person "What do we do?" I would not recommend GA tickets as the GA section is literally all the way in the back by the port-o potties and behind the sound tent, there's pretty much no view at all, it's just too far away. You'd be better off sitting in your car blasting the artists CD with a picture of them in front of you. Overall, the venue is great, security is so so, parking in the city sucks but if you get there early enough, there's at least two lots within 2 blocks of the venue that offer $10 parking, one is until midnight the other until 2am. The parking garages are $6/hour. read more

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Might not be the best place to have concerts. We went to the Billy Currington show for my birthday at the end of July. We ended up having a great time, but because of the weather we were there all night. Had to stand in the rain waiting for them to tell us the show would go on. I understand why they wanted us to evacuate, but more information (as to what's going on) as we waited would've been helpful. A lot of people left because they assumed the show would be canceled. My husband kept asking me to leave, but I wasn't going anywhere until I knew it was canceled. I'm glad I stayed. The show went on after the storm and we had a great time. read more

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Not sure why so many bad reviews. Theloaftion is meant for music, and when you can watch your favorite musicians perform, with the Atlantic Ocean right beside you, not sure how you complain. I see a lot of complaints about lack of alcohol choices, it's a music venue, not a bar, get hammered before you go in, it's meant for music. Went to see 311 last weekend and had tickets at the will call, not one person in line, had my ticket in 30 seconds. Walked right through security without issue and met my friends. Beer selection is a bit limited, although the lines were minimal, normally had a beer within a coup,e minutes. Acoustics are fantastic and general admission area is wide open, plenty of room. Anyway, based on my experience I would recommend Below based on five stars Location ***** Atmosphere. ***** Cleanliness. *** Restrooms. *** Acoustics. **** Lines/concessions. ** (moved quickly) Overall. **** read more

Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo & ocean air. It does not get any better than that! Excellent venue to see a concert. It's not crazy crowded & they even have "real" bathrooms, which I believe is a trailer but it's great. There are also the standard icky porta potties but I opted for the trailer every time, again, not crowded so I was in & out in minutes, which is super important when at a concert. We had reserved seats, which I recommend. I think I'm too old for the GA area. Even tho you do stand for the entire concert, there is a chair right there if you need to sit for a bit. Honestly, a beautiful spot to see a concert, I highly recommend it. read more

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OKAY I'm giving TWO stars ONLY because I was in front row for Billy Idol and of course this being my 151st concert to see Billy Idol it was amazing it was on the Maine waterfront!!!! Now let's get real here..This place could be absolutely amazing!!!! The staff here is absolutely CLUELESS!! I paid $350.00 for a VIP TICKET! YES..VIP means I don't want someone who had a 30th row ticket and another person who had 12th row ticket standing next to me who snuck up and SOMEHOW got by the 60 year old security woman who had no clue of what the hell she's doing! The security here is an absolute joke! I had half the place standing next to that was about 30 rows behind me who was NOT suppose to be there that paid 250 dollars less then me standing there..NOT COOL. This place is an absolutely amazing venue..To be absolutely truthful..out of all 151 times I've seen Billy Idol..this is in my TOP 5..You people really have to get your crap together!!!! The concert was amazing!! Your staff was rude to me when I went backstage. AND..Mind you, I've been backstage for Billy Idol..over 30 times..get over yourself.. I don't need anything from you..TRUST ME. read more

1st visit the other night taking my daughter to the "American Idols Live" tour. Front row seats. Stage so high that it is extremely difficult to see. When standing up my wife and daughter were told to sit down. Is this a concert or Bingo!? Damn. Good little area for a small level show but the staff has NO clue. read more

Maine State Pier - Landmarks & Historical Buildings Near Me

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Forced evacuation of the venue due to lightning and rain, lacked to provide details if the show would be canceled or continue, ended up leaving because we waited over an hour and didn't hear anything. Turns out the show continued later on after many people had already left and gone home. Just seems like a shady way to avoid refunds even with providing little to no details on the outcome. read more

Terrible venue, but it did provide a hilarious stage for Lewis Black to point out all the negative aspects of it... Noisy trucks right next to it, boats coming and going just next to the seating, no Maine beer on tap... Not a good venue for an event, much less a comedian! This place stinks of being owned / operated from someone not familiar with Maine... read more

This venue is terrible!!! I have been to hundreds of concerts in my life and have never dealt with such a level of incompetence from venue staff. My wife and I went to the Counting Crows concert last night. We purchased general admission tickets that were $50 each. Unlike the 99% of other shows to which I have been, the GA section was all the way in the back, away from the stage. Instead of having two different enterances, they had the seated section filter through the hoards of people in the GA section. You had to fight your way the whole way up to the very front row in GA to enter the seated area. We also quickly learned that the staff was simply unable to keep people from sneaking into the seated section. There are three ways: 1. Hand off your ticket through the gate to a friend stuck in GA and they can get right in (saw this happen in front of me about 200 times). 2. Since you may have both a VIP lanyard and a ticket, give one to your buddy. They can get right in. 3. Text a snapshot of your ticket to a friend. No one is scanning once you get in the venue. Really angry...night was ruined....Not nearly the first event that Portland had messed up by not scanning tickets. read more

On Friday, 8/19/16, we attempted to see Bonnie Raitt at the Maine State Pier in Portland, Maine. Because the event was sold out, we were relegated to SRO in the General Admission area, even though we had purchased our tickets several months ago. However, this was not even remotely worth the money we paid for our two tickets. Because the space in front of the stage is so narrow, we were forced to stand directly in front of the entrance, and were unable to get any closer to the stage, even though we arrived shortly after 6:00 for an 8:00 show. There were too many tickets sold for a venue like this, and as a result, we were unable to enjoy the show. People were pushing, spilling drinks and talking/yelling through the entire show, it was a disaster. In my 20's, this would have been an adventure, however, I expected more than what we received for our admission. This was exceptionally poor planning for an accomplished performer like Bonnie Raitt, and I was very disappointed. I will not attend another concert at Maine State Pier, and will discourage others from doing so as well. read more

This place is a pretty bad place to see a show. Wait 30-45+ minutes to get in. Then need to wait another 30-45 minutes to get a beer or water. The tents that sell drinks only have a tiny sign telling you what they are selling, and it is not on the top of the tent. So after you've already waited 20+ minutes you discover you were just waiting in the wrong line and need to go wait another 30 minutes in another one, miss half the show just trying to get a drink. They should definitely have more vendors for the amount of people they have going to shows, and better signage to avoid the drink situation being a complete clusterf___ . read more

My husband and I bought tickets to the Portland Lights Music Festival months ago and were a little nervous when they switched venues at the last minute. All of the reviews and comments we read were awful... While I can't say the view of the stage was quite as awful as others wrote (it really wasn't bad), the venue itself was a pretty awful choice for an all day festival. The only people who had seats were the VIPs, which we just hadn't seen the point in spending extra money on originally (but maybe we should have). However, my big problems were the staff... And this is why I give this venue two stars (I honestly want to give it lower, but the location is just so pretty). One staffer felt the need to be cool and rammed into my husband and I as he jumped the gate... Spilling both of our root beers all over each other... While he just looked back and said "oops, sorry." And then a little while later my husband was disposing of his Captain Eli's ROOT BEER cup when a staffer chased him all the way back to our area and accosted him for drinking without a bracelet... I jumped in and said "ma'am... We're drinking root beer,.. From the stand right over there." She got pretty defensive and right in my husbands face (and should I mention he's 39? Not exactly someone who looks on the cusp of 21). At least the whole ordeal gave the people near us a good laugh... And then... Right during the final encore song from Guster (the only reason we were there), some of the staff from the beer stand felt the need to move the kegs out... Right in front of us. We were pretty much pushed from our area and blocked from seeing some of the final minutes of our favorite band... Yeah, definitely great customer service all around. So there you have it... Not to take anything away from the show itself... Guster was great (as always), go see them next time they come to Maine. Augustana was also great live - I'd see them again. read more

I will never come to another concert here. I expected to stand with a general admission ticket but i never expected to be so far away from the stage i could not see the artist on stage. Also there was a giant tent directly in the limited line of site we did have. One of my favorite all time artists David Gray and i left 5 songs into his set. read more

Security was absolutely terrible. The venue is overpriced and the amenities (drinks, food, bathrooms) are the worst I've experienced in Portland. read more

I can't believe this venue is not all 5 star reviews. I saw Josh Turner here and it was incredible. Great visibility of the stage, beautiful views around the harbor, and a sea breeze. I can't think of a better way to see a summer concert. Afterwards you are steps from the old port. read more

This is for general admission section. You can't hear the music. You can't see the band. The only thing that distinguishes "general admission" from "the general public" is the ability to buy an over priced beer. That and the wonderful smell of the port a pottys read more

Attended Tedschi/Trucks, Jones, Bramhall. All music was great but Tedschi/Trucks, who played after dark, was close to ruined by a high intensity industrial light shining directly at the crowd just to the left of the stage. It was like trying to watch the concert with someone shining a flashlight in your eyes. Several people around me were pleading, "TURN OFF THE LIGHT!" I will NOT go back to this venue. read more

Worst venue ever!!! Don't bother paying for tickets, just pay the outrageous parking fees ($5-7 hrly, and many we "full" 3hrs before the start of the show!!) and sit in the ferry station! Not to mention they lack of food and drink options and ran out of many items, before the headliner even took the stage!!...4+hrs and no option to sit anywhere other then on the concrete and get stepped on if you weren't careful!!! read more

Place is so beat. Waiting 30 minutes to use the bothroom. Terrible beer selection, no liquor. Ends at 1030. Place is soooooooo beat

This venue is much too crowded into a narrow small space especially when a concert is sold out. Over sold is more the reality.

I have been in VIP seating and general admission at this venue. VIP is absolutely the way to go and here is why: you actually have a designated spot to watch the show. The wait for a beer is not long or inconvenient to access. And the music is much louder allowing the musician to transfer the energy to the crowd. I feel that this venue just does not care about the general admission guest. If you want to see a good show here plurge on front row seating or don't waste your time. read more

I would never pay to go to a concert here ever again. I spent $160 and couldn't see a thing. It was a total mess, there was no sense of direction in GA; people were just all over the place. The beer tent smack dab in the middle of event was a huge problem as far as visibility was concerned. All in all, the most expensive, and most horrible concert experience ever. Seriously disappointed. Not to mention I found out that a number other concert-goers spent significantly less on the same 'seating' through some of the same sites and ticket sale locations that I checked with. read more

I went to see Weezer on July 31. I was concerned about the poor reviews I read about the Maine State Pier before the concert and thought what have I gotten myself into? Fortunately I spoke to another parent who had been to two shows there and said they we great. My 3 teenagers and I had a great experience. It's an actual pier so we were completely outside (no tent or pavilion) with the ocean and boats all around us. We got there when the gates opened and took our places as close to the stage as possible. It was a sold-out show but the size of the crowd was reasonable. The staff was fine and did their jobs. My nephew and I got chicken fingers at the concessions stand. The line was long but moved quickly. The prices were reasonable and the food was very good. The crowd was great and behaved as expected at a Weezer show. The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful evening! read more

Don't Bother! The people running these concerts have no idea what they are doing! The "security" staff harrassed my group of people ranging in age from 55 to 87! Finally they kicked out one of my group for "profanity"! Are you kidding me - I paid $50 each for eight tickets. The information about when the show started was misleading. Said gates open at 5 show at 6 when in reality David Gray did not come on until after 7:30! Other reviewer was correct there was a tent smack dab in the site lines of general admission area. They also would not serve people 60 and 85 years old because they did not have an ID on them! Rude and unprofessional staff. No concept that we were customers who paid a lot of money to be there. Left during show was too disgusted by the harassment from cop wannabes. The state agency that leases out this pier to the jokers running the shows this year should not do business with them again. This venue makes Portland look bad. read more