By Lucia Grijalva
Photo from Tripadvisor
In the past few months, popular artists such as Pink Sweat$, G-Eazy and Jimmy Eat World have performed at one of Tucson’s most popular venues, the Rialto Theatre—a local hotspot for acts and events such as live music, comedy, tribute shows and community gatherings.
Credibility for the theatre, sourced from their website, includes, “over the last 10 years the Rialto Theatre has become a Top 100 Major Club Venue worldwide, according to concert industry trade magazine Pollstar, consistently ranking among the top 55 such venues by ticket sales ( #43 in 2015), and recently named #84 in The 100 Greatest American Music Venues by Consequence of Sound. The Rialto has also consistently been named the best venue in the Tucson Weekly’s annual Best of Tucson awards, chosen by the local Tucson community”.
Further promoting their accomplishments, “The Theatre’s status [is solidified] as a sustainable cornerstone of the thriving downtown Tucson. Having celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020, the Theatre now hosts 200 events and draws over 100,000 patrons annually from far and wide who enjoy a wide array of live entertainment in the Rialto’s historic setting.”
After the Covid pandemic, communities on both the small and widespread scale have been facing a challenging cultural estrangement. Concerts yield the abilities of both contradictory phenomena: connection and escape. In current times where major artists request tickets to be sold for substantial amounts, turning to the local scene may be an alleviatory response.