BUELL AMPS UP SECURITY BEFORE “HAMILTON” START
Enhanced screening will include metal detector
Buell Theatre is rolling out new security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, next week before the run of Broadway’s “Hamilton.”
Visitors to the Buell Theatre can expect to spend more time getting into the auditorium starting next week as the Denver Center for the Performing Arts rolls out new security measures before the Feb. 27-April 1 run of Broadway’s “Hamilton.”
The enhanced screening includes bag checks, a metal detector and a renewed focus on banned items such as drugs, weapons and oversized bags, the Denver Center said in an email sent to subscribers Friday.
The security checks will take effect before the 7:30 p.m. performance of “Stomp” on Tuesday.
“It’s something that has been contemplated before, but we’re about to have a big year with the ‘Hamilton’ run, ‘Stomp’ and Robert Plant all in a row, so this seemed like a decent time to test it out,” Denver Arts & Venues marketing director Brian Kitts said.
As the city-run agency that owns the 2,839-seat Buell, Arts & Venues is responsible for providing and operating the new security measures. The $30,000 cost of the metal detectors will come out of Arts & Venues’ operating budget. The cost does not include ongoing staffing, Kitts said.
“The good news here is that the majority of people going to these performances have been through some sort of security, whether it’s at the airport or Coors Field or the Pepsi Center,” he said. “It shouldn’t be any different than that. We just ask that, if you have a big, bulky bag with you and know it’s going to be searched, just leave it in the car.”
Guests are “strongly encouraged to arrive up to one hour before” the show, according to the subscriber email. The Buell was chosen to pilot the new measures because it’s the most active venue at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Kitts said.
“It honestly may slow things down, but whether it’s transportation-related or venue-related, people get used to it,” Kitts said. “At some point it feels just like part of the process of going to an event.”
The new measures specifically ban all outside food and beverages (with some exceptions), weapons, marijuana and other drugs without prescription, and bags larger than 12 by 12 by 12 inches. A full list of permitted and prohibited items is available at artscomplex.com.
Other city-owned, Arts & Venues-run spaces have increased their security measures over the past two years, partly in response to terrorist attacks at concerts — such as the November 2015 Paris attacks, in which 89 people were shot to death at Paris’ Bataclan theater, and the May 2017 bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people.
Mega-promoter AEG Presents, which books Denver’s largest venues, also introduced walk-through metal detectors at certain metro-area clubs in the summer of 2016 before rolling them out to all of its booked spaces, ranging from Red Rocks Amphitheatre to the Bluebird Theater.