Festival Theatre Reviews Summary

Theatre Experience

Pros:

• "The theatre is beautiful, the seats are spacious and reasonably priced unlike the Edinburgh Playhouse."
• "A lovely theatre to go to, and fairly central as well."
• "Looks really modern from the outside but the theatre itself is still a gorgeous old victorian style theatre."
• "It's a spacious well laid out building with various levels of seating."
• "Local amenities were very accessible both before and after the show."
• "Staff were all very helpful and place was clean and tidy throughout."
• "This is one of Edinburgh's finest theatres, I have attended networking events here and also seen numerous shows and have always been impressed by the level of service you receive."

Cons:

• "Wine is expensive."
• "Only gripe is the Theater were supposed to validate our car parking ticket so we got a discounted rate on parking, which is expensive in the centre. They said they couldn't do it as ran out of allowance?"
• "Disgusting customer service rang up to ask for a refund of my tickets due to family issues."
• "The only disappointment was the fact you couldn't use money to buy anything!!"
• "A significant negative issue is to do with getting refreshments. There is no point in trying to queue, (as many do), because the staff serve whoever shouts or pushes forwards."
• "We think it needs a bit of a spruce up."
• "The only reason for not giving a five star review was that bar was very disorganised."

Seating and Comfort

Pros:

• "Seating comfortable."
• "Inside is an old theatre which has reasonably comfortable seat with a good view of the stage."
• "Good venue, excellent accessibility, easy to find, lots of nearby cafes and bars for a pre-show drink, reasonable toilets (not bad for such a large place) and good views from all areas of the auditorium."
• "It's a brilliant building in the city centre, harking back to an old era with chandeliers and plush comfortable seating, good sound and acoustics."
• "The facilities are modern and well looked after, the seating is comfortable and has provision for wheelchairs."
• "We chose the stalls where there was lots of legroom and comfy seats."
• "Seats are perfectly comfortable."

Cons:

• "Only drawback was there was no local parking."
• "The red wine was overpriced and really unpleasant."
• "Show was great seats are really uncomfortable."
• "The theatre itself is good but the auditorium is not in good shape."
• "The seating was cramped, with ourselves and people around all saying the same."
• "Seats not very comfy."
• "The seats don't have much legroom and it is pretty cramped and stuffy."

Customer Service

Pros:

• "Staff were all friendly helpful and polite from the booking office, bar, programme seller, ice cream vendor, or merchandise stands."
• "Great customer service."
• "Service in the upstairs bar before the show was exceptional."
• "Staff are so helpful, facilities are top class."
• "The staff who were efficient, polite and helpful."
• "Always love going to the Festival Theatre as the staff are always friendly, efficient, and helpful."
• "Every member of staff I spoke to and engaged with were friendly, professional, and polite."

Cons:

• "However they have FAILED to renew my Friend’s membership, which I pay by direct debit, FAILED to reply to my emails & FAILED to answer my calls."
• "The ladies toilets need to be checked more often as some were blocked and you could not use them."
• "I complained but the staff, including one who seemed like a supervisor, did not accept what I said and actually ganged up on me, ignoring the queue."
• "Staff nice that we met, but could be a bit more organised for entering the actual theatre hall itself, especially on sold out shows, it was a bit of a free-for-all for anyone unsteady."
• "Our enjoyment of the concert was spoiled by theatre staff constantly telling people to turn off their phones and not to dance."
• "Poor from the security/stewards."
• "Was very stand-offish and no help at all."

Accessibility and Amenities

Pros:

• "The Cafe, open to the public, has a reasonable array of hot & cold drinks as well as beers & wines."
• "Caught the final performance of Scottish Ballet's homage to Gene Kelly, 'Starstruck '. A fabulous show in this beautiful theatre."
• "Good crowd control in and out, extortionate micro tubs of ice cream."
• "The Festival Theatre has a very wide spacious foyer and equally spacious areas on each floor."
• "Thank you to the wonderful staff who looked after us (my wife is in a wheelchair), from booking to arrival through to leaving, we were very well catered for by a really friendly team - thank you!"
• "The place is clean, and staff are friendly."
• "I'm disabled and in a wheelchair, this is a great place to go to. Very good disabled access."

Cons:

• "For a theatre of this size the toilet situation is abominable. With a sold out production - twice a day for weeks - the queue at the interval meant that for many this took up the entire break."
• "Worst experience, can't believe this is a reputable pantomime every year, was wondering when it was starting to first half, unbelievable they get away with charging such high prices, it's more for adults than kids, would rather watch paint dry, never again."
• "No parking onsite."
• "It can be tricky finding parking nearby but you're in the city centre so it's no surprise and the bus links are great."
• "Only downfall is parking!"
• "They are all careless now and don’t take cash which cause some issues at the interval when getting ice cream as the vendors machine kept losing connection."
• "Unfortunately we were in the nose-bleeds which made it difficult to see anything clearly."