‘Night at the Ritz’ to Begin in September

Main Street Toccoa is kicking off a new event series called Night at the Ritz beginning in September.

Main Street Manager Christian Hamilton said this new series is to provide regularly scheduled programming at the Ritz and is made possible by partial funding from the Georgia Council for the Arts.

“The purpose of it is to establish a regular schedule of programming throughout the year,” said Hamilton. “We’re providing quality entertainment, different acts, music groups, different genres. We’re starting in September with Motown and we’ll be ending in February with jazz. In between that we’ll have country, some southern rock, we even have an act, Lightwire Theater, they came last year, they were very successful. We’re bringing them back for a Christmas show. It’s just a way to fill up the Ritz Theatre, bring people downtown and we’re doing it partially through a sponsorship from the Georgia Council for the Arts. They’re a state organization. They provide funds for art and culture endeavors and we did receive a project grant from them and they’re funding 50 percent of the project.”
Hamilton said they’re trying to keep this event scheduled for the first Thursday of every month depending on artist availability.

To attend Night at the Ritz, you will have to buy tickets. Adult tickets are $10 and child tickets are $5. Hamilton said they’re working to also set up a season pass option.

Although concert tickets will be required for most of the shows, there will be a free concert in October.

“Our October show, which is going to be the Piatigorsky Foundation, we’re going to have that free for everybody to attend as part of an educational endeavor,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said Night at the Ritz will establish an affordable and regular event opportunity for the community.

“We are establishing a regular schedule of events for this concert and event series,” said Hamilton. “What we’re hoping to do is we’re hoping that when people come downtown, instead of trying to find something to do they’ll say, ‘I wonder what they’re doing at the Ritz tonight.’ So we’re hoping to fill up the programming at the Ritz, to make it affordable for everybody so people will continue to see the Ritz as an economic anchor in downtown Toccoa. It’s vastly becoming that, we’re having shows all the time now and really we just want to continue to elevate the Ritz Theatre as a cornerstone of downtown Toccoa.”

The first Night at the Ritz event begins September 7 with the New South Players.

Tickets can be found at the Main Street office, at the Chamber office and at the door.