A 1917 garage on the old coast-to-coast highway became the venue that taught downtown Phoenix to go out again. Crescent Ballroom at 308 North 2nd Avenue opened on 3 October 2011 with a sold-out Blind Pilot show, the creation of promoter Charlie Levy of Stateside Presents, who had spent years booking other people's rooms across Arizona before renovating the F.L. Hart Garage into his own. The single-storey brick building with its wood-truss roof dates to Phoenix's first automobile boom, built along the Dixie Overland Highway - US 80, the Broadway of America - and housed garages, tire shops and an awning company for nine decades before the stage moved in. The formula is two venues in one: a 550-capacity ballroom with the proportions Levy considered perfect - 7,000 square feet, ceilings high enough for a stage but low enough for intimacy - and a front lounge serving the Mexican-leaning comfort food of Cocina 10 with a bar, patio and free live music most nights, so the building works as a neighbourhood hangout even without a ticket. The name nods to Levy's native New Orleans, the Crescent City, and to the crescent-moon emblem of early Phoenix. The opening month set the tone - St. Vincent, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Dawes with Blitzen Trapper, Washed Out, Adrian Belew and Deer Tick inside the first weeks - and the calendar has stayed that eclectic: indie, Latin alternative, folk, electronic, comedy and local showcases. Its success seeded a downtown empire, with Levy opening the subterranean Valley Bar in 2015 and the 1,800-capacity Van Buren in 2017. Modelled consciously on Tucson's Hotel Congress model of venue-as-community-hub, Crescent Ballroom is credited more than any single room with reviving downtown Phoenix nightlife - a garage on the Broadway of America that now sends its traffic out on foot, two blocks from the Van Buren Street light rail.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 308 North 2nd Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, United States, 85003

Website: https://www.crescentphx.com

Capacity: 550

Opening Date: 03/10/2011

Serves Food

Outdoor Area

Accessible