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January 2021 by Michael Prendergast
An Austin Classic !
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June 2019 by Mary Zagger
You need more help getting people in your venue!!!!
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March 2019 by John Joseph Stone
One of Austin's Favorite Music Venues. they are in the process of building a multi-million dollar complex that will prove to be one of Austin's Gems
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August 2017 by Mario Martinez
The best places to relax drink and the more important music nice people great artist and atmosphere wow chics
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June 2017 by Lee Mattingly
Has to be incredible Backyard on techno steroids ....always good now JP has ratcheted the quality up! This native Austinite gives thumps up
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November 2016 by Summer Majors
The BEST place to go for live music in Texas is here! Can't wait to see the new stage!
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October 2015 by B C.
I want to really like this place. However, their policies are ridiculous. I forgot my jacket in the car and they refused to let me go the 30 feet past the entrance to get it. The man at the entrance kept pointing to the no ins-and-outs rule on the sign. I am well into my thirties. I'm not under age sneaking alcohol. I WAS FREEZING!!! I asked my fiancé to come help me try and convince them. Upon asking the second the attendant called over a police officer and asked if I wanted to get arrested. Are you kidding me?! Arrested?! The show hadn't even begun yet. I was hardly there 10 minutes and you're threatening to arrest me for wanting to retrieve my jacket?! This place is terrible. Don't brother wasting your time seeing an overpriced show here just to be treated like a criminal.
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March 2015 by L Kelly
Went to The Backyard to see some boxing and enjoy some blues music this past weekend. No where else can enjoy good live blues music and boxing all with the feel as if I was in my own backyard with my friends and family. Great BBQ and a fun atmosphere. Had a great Saturday!
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March 2015 by Joel Low
Went to String Cheese Incident here on Fourth of July 2013, and must say that it is one of my favorite venues in Austin. The place has a special Austin feel to it, and it was not over crowded. The bar tenders were friendly, and the drinks good for a concert venue. So it's a little far from the city, but definitely worth the drive.
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May 2014 by Rachel P.
When a friend asked me to go to a concert at the Backyard I was super excited, I liked the old location and hadn't been to the new one yet. I of course got on Yelp to see if there were any good tips for parking etc. I noticed that this place had some BAD reviews but most of them were at least a year old, maybe they had gotten better? Found out the reason most of the reviews are a year old, because nothing has changed for the better. Since the concert was on a Tuesday we weren't able to make it to the venue until 7 when everyone was off work. That could have been the cause but it took us a hour and 30 minutes to get from 71 and Bee Cave Rd. to actually parked at the venue. The entire time I kept thinking where are the cops/security/traffic control?? If I lived in the area I would be furious at the traffic this poorly staffed situation causes. Parking is super wacky and there was like 2 people directing. Once we got into the venue my friend was hungry but the food lines were so long she never even bothered. The bar lines were short which was nice and once the show started the bathroom lines weren't bad. The venue itself is really beautiful and we were there on a night with amazingly nice weather so it was enjoyable. In the middle of August, I might not have liked it so much but there did seem to be quite a bit of shade. One thing I couldn't get over was the terrain is so super rocky that flip-flops were a bad choice and we actually saw an older woman carried out on a stretcher after falling. We could tell the concert was finishing up and we knew how bad that parking situation was so we headed towards the car. Well we were parked on the opposite side of the entrance/exit (not by choice) and we could have been out easily if there was an exit on both sides of the "lot" but because there wasn't we had to wait on everyone that had a spot closer to the exit jump in front of us. It took us another hour to get out of the parking lot. Overall, we had 2 hours of enjoying the concert and 2 1/2 hours of sitting in the car. It would have to be something really unique and worth that effort to get me to go back to the backyard.
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March 2014 by jon gerusa
Sublime concert. Awesome fair grounds. It's big enough to have that big concert feel but small enough to where it doesn't feel like acl. I loved the vendors. I don't think they had anything to do with the actual backyard but they were good. Even tried to upsell drinks, food and stuff. I appreciate stuff like that.
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March 2014 by Amy Whipple
4th of July celebration with Willie and a bunch of other bands. Very laid back day...xouldnt have had a better Birthday this year :)
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July 2013 by Amy B.
I seem to have had a very different experience from most of the people reviewing this place, because I went to the String Cheese Incident shows this past Friday and Saturday nights, and absolutely loved the venue! Jamband crowds tend to be pretty friendly and conscientious, so it's possible that affected my experience, but I had a great time at the new Backyard. Parking was easy and cheap (I'm used to $7-10 parking at most amphitheaters, so $5 was less than I expected). Parking attendants got us in place quickly, and the walk to the front gate was just a minute or two. After the show, the roads around the venue were pretty packed, but I don't see that as the venue's fault. Put a couple thousand people on ANY road at the same time and you're going to get traffic. Entry was quick and easy. They had two or three lines going, with people at the first station checking your bags, then the next station scanning your tickets. They didn't allow any kind of camelbacks or water bottles - I saw a few people get pretty ticked about that. The stage was big and attractive. My husband said he thought the sound wasn't as clear as it could have been, but I thought it was great. There was no seating that I could tell - it was all GA, and everyone just stood, danced, and moved around at will. It was full, but not so packed that you couldn't make your way fairly close to the stage, and all throughout the venue, there were hilly areas and steps where short people like me could position themselves to see over the crowd. The bathrooms were not porta-potties, but buildings on either side of the stage with a bunch of stalls. The toilets were clean, had toilet paper, and all worked just fine. The lines took about 3-4 minutes. Free water! Maybe this was just the show I went to, but a couple of the bar stalls, and tables outside each restroom, were dispensing free drinking water. Cups were replaced frequently, and the water was cold. This was probably my favorite thing about the venue. The trees blocked the stage view slightly from some parts of the venue, but they did make the venue prettier, so I can't complain too much about that. The ground was a little rocky and uneven in places, making walking around after dark a little tricky, but I figure it's an outdoor venue with a LOT of fot traffic, so a few rocks is to be expected. Overall, it had its minor flaws, hence only four stars, but I had a great time there, and nothing about the venue hampered my enjoyment of the show. I will absolutely go back when a band I like is playing at the Backyard!
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June 2013 by Michele C.
Update to my previous post: I did get a full refund on my parking and ticket prices for the Willie Nelson show that I missed due to the horrible parking issues. I spoke with the parking manager and he knew it was a nightmare that day and told me about some of the changes he plans to make the parking better. If a band does come to The Backyard that I want to see, I probably will give them another chance (I previously planned never to go back) but I will arrive early and cross my fingers for good luck. I upped my review to two stars to average in my good time for The Beach Boys and my nonexistent time with Willie. If I go back, I'll update again.
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April 2013 by Lisa M.
I loved the old Backyard but this was my first time at the new venue. I actually feel fortunate to have made it out of there without being injured. We had a great experience up to the start of the show and then it just got out of hand. It is Wille's 80th birthday show and fundraiser for West, Tx. They had representatives from West and Abbott VFD there as special guests, several in uniform and watching the show from the stage. Lots of fundraising going on. Very cool, right? There was a huge crowd. I bought tickets for the seated area, which was still General Admission so my friends and I got there at 4:00 to get in early. We got the second row in the left section of seats facing the stage, close to the aisle. The place fills up and the show starts and people start coming down to the stage and standing and dancing around in front of the people who bought more expensive seats and got there hours early. Completely blocking views and generally being obnoxious. Four different people went to find security to ask them to move. Security said they were "working on it." For the first hour of the show, there was NO security at the front of the stage. In fact, I only saw two people working in front of the stage the whole show. There was no one working in the aisles. Finally a relatively small guy who looked more like an accountant showed up (not in any kind of identifying clothing) starts trying to move people back. Then another guy shows up and they manage to clear a small area directly in front of the stage. However, the aisles to stage left and stage right were all completely full and no effort was being made to clear them. We were essentially trapped in our seats. First thing that happened was a disabled woman (using a cane) left to go to the restroom and by the time she got back, her seat had been stolen by someone who had been very aggressive to the seated patrons who asked him to stop dancing in front of (and crashing into them.) It took about six people telling the "guard" before he finally forced the man to relinquish her seat. Next, an older couple stumbled into the little cleared area and the woman promptly passed out, apparently because of the crowds and being overwhelmed. We were all screaming at the "security" guy to help her. People sitting immediately around her jumped to her assistance but there were so many people crowded in that no one from the security team even saw what was happening until we screamed enough at him to get his attention. She was maybe four feet from me and I could not move. They radioed for assistance but the aisles were so full that the medics couldn't get through. (This happened right in front of the stage.) Finally, two of the EMS workers from West EMS who were on the stage as guests had to crawl off the stage and assist until the venue medics could get there. They finally cleared the aisles to let her out, but let them fill back up again almost immediately. At least two times, people trying to squeeze up to the stage via the front aisle fell against people sitting in the front row, which was mostly senior citizens. People all around us were angry and yelling and there were very nearly several fights. I'm used to loose access to the front of the stage for people to walk up and take a picture then leave, but letting the only escape routes be completely clogged through the whole entire show was negligent and irresponsible. I have been to many Willie shows, had similar seats and many of them at the original Backyard. I have never seen anything like this and not only was it annoying and came close to ruining the show, it was extraordinarily dangerous. It is shameful that those EMS people who were supposed to be guests of honor had to miss part of the show to do something that could have been prevented with the most basic crowd control. I understand having a more relaxed approach to things because it's Willie but this was beyond the pale. He wouldn't want his fans injured and and the Backyard
