Washington Pavilion

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Washington Pavilion is truly one of Sioux Falls’ crown jewels. From world-class performances and concerts to incredible visual art and hands-on science exhibits, there’s always something happening here for every age and interest. The venue itself is beautiful, well maintained, and easy to navigate, with great sightlines and acoustics that make every show feel special. Staff members are friendly, helpful, and clearly passionate about what they do, which makes the entire experience even better. Whether you’re attending a Broadway show, taking the kids to the science center, or enjoying an art exhibit, the Washington Pavilion consistently delivers memorable experiences. It’s a huge asset to our community and a place I’m always proud to recommend to friends, family, and visitors. Sioux Falls is lucky to have it.

Highly recommend for families! Having recently relocated from Iowa City for my business, we were eager to explore the local area, and the Washington Pavilion came highly recommended. It certainly did not disappoint. My six-year-old twins had an absolute blast! It is a fantastic resource for families, and we are already looking forward to our next visit.

The Kirby Science Discovery Center was AMAZING! Our whole group had so much fun and didn’t want to leave! We opted to go to the cafe on 1st floor for lunch. The food was okay and reasonably priced, in the future I’d pack a picnic to eat outside on the picnic tables or walk to a nearby restaurant. The 3rd floor has a mother’s room near the bathrooms which was extremely helpful (although it wasn’t the cleanest).

We have been to the Kirby Science Museum a couple times now with my daughter, age 2 both visits. We have loved it! Love that some of the exhibits change. A great spot in Sioux Falls in you have younger kids.

Normally we take the kids in for a good fun time in the Kerby Science Center and to watch a movie in the Cinadome but this time we came in for the theater. They had live music in the lobby while we were waiting to go into our seats and you could buy a drink before or during intermission. I did notice haw much warmer it was in the theater during the second half but you could feel the air kick on as the show went on. The restrooms were clean but crowded with how many people tried to use them on breaks. I've seen a few shows here and I'm impressed with the variety of talent they bring in. Also, if you get a chance to check out the kids art, please do. It's a treat you don't want to miss.

Every time I look at tickets like especially for a clue on stage, the price of tickets is outrageous. I guess what the Washington pavilion is only for the rich. How sad because it could expose a lot of different people to a lot of arts and culture. But they priced people right out of it, what a shame.

Just went to see the Aurora show at the Planetarium today. It was so blurry it was ridiculous. I have VR Goggles from 10 years ago that are better than that. I'm glad it was only $8/person because any more I would have demanded a refund. But I know one thing, I was looking forward to seeing every different show you had, not anymore. You can keep your blurry projector. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

A museum sponsored by big agriculture that had a definite agenda. Overall disappointing content. My boys aged 5 and 3 had fun, but they were basically interested in the large touch screen video game, not the displays. There was a safe space for the baby to crawl around.

Great venue....saw Herb Alpert earlier this month, while visiting old friends. Acoustics....Excellent!!

The Nutcracker ballet was fantastic!! Venue decorated beautifully for Christmas. The performance was amazing. There is not a bad seat & parking is close. Highly recommend!!

I think you have a beautiful venue, polite employees and many things to see. My surprise that there were not aisles that break up the guest seating. I had to crawl over how many people to go out for break and the restroom. I could only hear the show, could not see over the person in front of me. I would suggest you lose some seating and break up your seating making aisles, at least 2 from top to bottom. I pray you never have a fire in the auditorium because many would perish because they could never get out in time. Our group spent a lot of money to come and attend the show. Unless I purchased the front row I would never visit again. Hope you give your seating some thought, sometimes changes are hard but think of your customers comfort and safety. It would certainly be worth it for them. Nancy V

Great place to eat before the show.pulled pork sandwiches were tasty. Great Cole slaw and garlic beans

This is a KIDS museum. Don't bother with just adults because they have no problem taking your $15 each and it's a large playground

The Washington Pavilion is a historic building built in the very early 1900s (1908, I believe). It used to be a high school with the name of Washington High School. It is centrally located in downtown Sioux Falls and is still one of my favorite places to visit when I go home.

I would probably spend more money to travel to a different venue. We had a difficult time locating the building because the outside did not structurally look like what I would expect in a concert hall. The facilities were clean, and we thought it was interesting that the building also had a museum in it. The performance was great. However, the seating is not fat friendly - or even grown adult friendly. The tight spacing makes it incredible difficult to sit politely with your neighbor but also walk past those seated in the row to exit. I was shocked at the courtesy and etiquette of this place. People were able to go in and out in the middle of a number - they evidently couldn't wait until a break to either leave or come back into the performance. The ushers either did not to their job or this is ok behavior. It was incredibly distracting to me as a patron, who made A LOT of money and came out of town to see the performance. I cannot imagine how the performers felt. Finally, a person's cell phone went off three times, and no one asked them to leave or silence their phone. I have been to places far less populated that have had the ability to have proper etiquette.

We live in town and this place is an amazing experience- especially in the winter. We love being able to spend an entire day exploring - and each new exhibit is well done and fun for all ages. My kids burn off energy during winter, and my husband and I enjoy the all in one attraction - eating lunch at Leonardo's is delicious, reasonably priced and convenient. We also enjoy the shows and art galleries (when I can convince the kids to go to the art side).

Interactive Captivating Our favorite seats in the IMAX theatre are the top row. The art was rad and topped off with an Oscar Wilde mic drop.

The kids science center in Sioux Falls is one of the most amazing of it's kind. We live in the bay area and we have many kids science museums, but this one is the BEST! The 3-4 floors of exhibitions are full of fun interactive displays of in variety of subjects. It will engage kids and adults alike from age 3 and up. I was really amazed by it and the kids didn't have enough of it. we had to come back two days in a row. the price was very reasonable too. If you visit (or live) in Sioux Falls, you MUST visit here.

I was annoyed to learn that they will NOT refund you your tickets even if you purchase a "protection plan". The protection was was pointless. All I was offered was a suggestion to find someone else to take the tickets. I won't be purchasing from here again.

This is a weird review to write. I'm not going to review the art, most of which of awesome. I didn't go to science center area or the cinescope either. I do love the downtown Sioux Falls art vibe in general. From the David to beautiful pink stone buildings, it's both inspiring and surprising. On to pavilion unfortunately there are no maps of the galleries. I have some mobility issues and planning my route would be very helpful if I had a map, or signage. When every step is measured, every step counts! There are elevators, but unfortunately they all seem to take you only half way where you need to go and with out a map, we were left guessing. We took elevators that led us to a basement a mezzanine and both were dead ends. Please get some maps. Or perhaps post maps or more arrows pointing people in the right directions. Even finding the front door was a challenge. I had to walk around 3 sides of building to find it. By the end I was totally exhausted and wrecked. Signs and maps either paper or posted are an easy fix. Otherwise I would give this more stars. And I really want to give it more stars.

This building is a beautiful piece of art in downtown Sioux Falls. The Pavilion is a wonderful site for field trips (the science center) and events, and the theater is gorrrrrgeous. I've been to a few performances there, and I'm always enchanted by how "glamorous" it is. A great find in Sioux Falls!

The simple reason for the 2 stars is customer service. The service stinks really really bad. The workers were a bunch of jerks.

We're "family membership" charter members. The current leadership has made an always "pretty good" place in Sioux Falls and "excellent!" place in Sioux Falls. All-praise - and Leonardo's Cafe is one of the best lunch places to eat downtown.

My first time to the pavilion was great. I went to see to the Book of Mormon. Due to not being from the area, I arrived a little early for the show. A lady name Barb was super. She took time to show the gallery to us and share her stories about the artists. Barb a true gem.

A TOTAL NIGHTMARE!!!!! Brides beware this is not a place you want your ceremony at for the price! We felt so good about having our wedding at the Pavilion. Even though it was so expensive - we wanted it to be a memory that we would always cherish. People commented on how special and beautiful it would be to have it there. We had our wedding in the great hall on stage. How embarrassing and what a disappointment! A sad memory we will always have! The gift table skirt on backwards so the skirt faced the wall and the ugly back of the table showing - that's the first thing our guests saw, dinner table clothes on lop sided - a few inches on one side and way long on the other and not just one, but several of them. What quality of help does the Pavilion have? Allyson even tried to stand in front of the gift table to hide it - when I bought to her attention ( this was when the mothers were being escorted in by the groom in for the ceremony) she said yes she saw it and would fix it. Too bad all our guests had already saw how particular and how much time was spent on details by the Pavilion for our event when they walked in to be seated. And why wasn't Allyson checking on these things before the event even started? Allyson was never on site that's why. She said she would be there the whole night, but every time we needed her she had to be paged and would show up 10 - 15 minutes later. Also during the ceremony the que's for the music was horrible when transitioning from our unity ceremony, and back to song when walking out. The wedding party and Josh and Meghan stood there and looked like complete fools after the ceremony had ended there was almost a minute lag before the music actually started playing to que them to walk out. How horrible does that look? Shouldn't the Pavilion take more pride in their facility - their work? Is this common? The Pavilion puts on many events including concerts and what not..so how is it they couldn't get the music or slideshow to work seamlessly? I guess when I delivered the DVD and CD two days before our wedding they didn't have the courtesy to view it before to make sure the slideshow was in full color (like it was made), and the music was working correctly (when it had when I made it). I guess we should have sought out others that have had wedding in the Pavilion this summer. Ask them if this is how their event was handled. It is the Pavilion right? We thought we would get what we paid for! Funny they can take people's money- do an awful job and you don't even have a gun!!!! When one of your wedding coordinators ( I believe Megan was her name) walked past the head table and knocking the entire 5 ft. centerpiece to the floor with a radio she had on her hip - breaking five vases full of flowers, broken rented branches, broken hanging votives and crystals. She just left. We were left with picking up all the pieces and mess and going back to our left overs back stage to try to put something together. And this was when the guests were being seated at their tables. What a beautiful sight they witnessed and to be greeted with. That was just another sign of your lack of their professionalism. And yet they make no reference to us being compensated for this. It was so cold guests were going to their cars to get sweaters and jackets. I know of three times complaints were made to the bartenders or anyone we could find to tell. It took a long time before anything was ever done about it. Maybe if Allyson would have been there it could have been fixed a little sooner. Guests were talking amongst themselves and telling us after the ceremony how they couldn't hear a word of the ceremony and after the slide show they were wondering why there were big blobs of red and green on the screen, and the music was so distorted you couldn't hear the music that was being played during the slideshow. But how crazy it worked seamlessly when I played it on multiple dvd players, and computers everything was perfect! I had spent weeks working on this slide show - making it perfect. Only to be ruined by their staff. As my parents sitting in the lobby of the downtown Holiday Inn listening to wedding guests as they checked in telling the clerk that they had been at a wedding at the Pavilion. The clerk telling them that it must have been wonderful and the guests responding by saying they couldn't hear any of the ceremony and the slide show was bad bad color, and the music distorted. It made my parents feel so bad for us. We had spent so much time & money on this wedding. Do you know what it is like to cry on your wedding day? Not tears of joy, but because so many things are wrong - preventable things! It makes it so easy for the Pavilion to dismiss what went wrong by saying - well - we won't charge you for this or that. What are we left with - sad memories - and anger. Is this what we paid for? What an awful experience, I would NEVER recommend this place of business to anyone.