The Ritz Ybor

A theater with a few lives

It opened as the Rivoli Theatre in 1917, then was expanded and renamed the Ritz in 1931. It showed movies into the 1970s, ran as the Masquerade nightclub from 1992 to 2006, and reopened as The Ritz Ybor in June 2008 after a $2 million renovation.

Nirvana, Tool, Foo Fighters, Phish, Lady Gaga, The Killers and Dave Matthews Band are all on the list of acts that have played the building. It holds roughly 1,100 for a concert, which puts it a step above Ybor's bar stages and well below the downtown arena.

The neighborhood is older than the theater. Ybor City was founded in 1885, and its first residents were mostly Cuban and Spanish cigar workers. For the Latin side of the statewide calendar, see the Latin shows page.

Streetcar or garage

The TECO Line Streetcar is the move here. Its Centro Ybor stop at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue is about a block from the theater, rides are fare free, and the cars run late on Friday and Saturday nights. Park downtown or in the Channel District, ride out for the show and ride back after.

If you drive, the city runs two garages in Ybor that stay open around the clock. The Centro Ybor garage at 1500 East Fifth Avenue is two blocks south of The Ritz, and the Palm Avenue garage sits on 13th Street near Palm Avenue.

Before you go

• Pick a meeting spot off Seventh Avenue in case your group gets split up in the crowd after the show.
• Age limits change from show to show. Check your ticket and bring an ID.
• Doors and bag rules vary by booking, so read the details on your ticket.

If the night starts at a hockey game or an arena show, the same streetcar line runs from Benchmark International Arena. For more Ybor history, The Orpheum spent two decades down the street before moving north, and every Tampa date is on the Tampa page.