Ironstone Amphitheatre

I happened to win tickets to the recent Heart concert at this venue.  I had never even heard of Murphys before, so I up for an adventure to check it out.

A quick check for directions on their website and off we went.  They have easy to understand directions on their website. Since I was traveling from Fresno, I decided to follow the direction they had from Stockton. 3 different routes were available coming from Fresno. I decided to use this route due to wanting to avoid narrow mountain roads.  Highway 4 was great! There was only about a 5-10 miles stretch that was scary. Thru that area the road was very curvy and narrow, but they are in the process of fixing the road in that area.  Once we got the Murphys it was very easy to find  Ironstone. The mile or so drive on six mile rd wasn't bad, just a normal country road.  

The parking situation wasn't bad either. The parking area is mainly unpaved, so it did get dusty on the way out. We have handicap parking and were able to park right up front at the entrance. It was perfect for us.  We hung around for about 45 mins after the show, in order to let the parking lot empty, no sense in wasting gas parked bumper to bumper.
The entrance area is also were the port a potties are located at. They were as clean as port a potties can be. They did have plenty of hand washing stations too. Much appreciated too. I hate not have somewhere to wash my hands.

The venue had a lot of seating available, especially in general admission. I was surprised at how huge the area was. The general admission area is tiered so you can see over the people in front of you. Very nice!   My tickets were for section D row 5. They were excellent seats. Basically the provided seating is nothing but folding chairs that are linked together. The only thing I found bad about this is that they didn't give much slack to move a little. It was a little hot at the beginning of the show, so being able to move the seat a few inches apart would have been great, but we managed.   For the most part people respected each others space. We were in the back of the section so people, including myself were dancing and having a good time.  We never had any issues with security telling us to not be dancing. Hell everyone even had cameras(supposed to be forbidden)out taking pictures, with no issues.

The food from the vendors was pricey but at events like this, they always are.

This place was a beautiful location for a great outdoor show! I will for sure come back for another show. It was a great time!

Great spot for a concert however the bad points outweigh the good points here.
Very pricey, everything.  The tickets, the food, the wine, the beer are all way over priced.
We had a cheese tray and a carafe of wine for $50.
Then there is the security... they rule with an iron stone fist !  To the point of being rude for nothing, sorry about dancing during a concert.
There are much better venues here in northern California, we will not do this one again.

What cool place to see a concert