At Riverside Fox Performing Arts Center, we strive to provide quality artistic programming for the diverse Inland Empire community that features professional artists and emerging talent. If you're looking for the best visual performing arts events in Riverside, California and online, you've come to the right place. The Riverside Fox Theater, now known as the Riverside Fox Performing Arts Center, is a historic landmark in the city of Riverside. It holds an important place in the history of our region and bears the name of its founder, William Fox, who lost control of his film empire in the early 1930s, but whose legacy lives on in a long list of well-known Fox entertainment companies. As part of the Fox Entertainment Plaza, they are just a few meters away from the Fox Performing Arts Theater and the Riverside Food Lab.
What began in 1992 as a small Christmas lighting ceremony has since become one of the most renowned Christmas events in the United States. With two historic performing arts centers managed by Live Nation, downtown Riverside offers the best in nightlife and entertainment, all just a short walk from the Riverside Convention Center and downtown hotels. Located in the heart of downtown Riverside, The Riverside Game Lab offers a unique virtual reality gaming experience, along with classic arcade games, pinball machines and more. Stanberry, the team responsible for many of the 305 theaters of the “West Coast Theaters” chain, was created in a Spanish colonial Renaissance style that blended perfectly with the aesthetics of the city of Riverside in the 1920s. It had a luxurious art deco interior that was considered to be at its peak during that time, giving it an exotic and ornate atmosphere. Built in 1929 as a movie theater, the Fox Performing Arts Center presented its first screening of Gone with the Wind in the 1930s.
During this period, the city of Riverside purchased, renovated and later reopened it to create a performing arts facility for community use. On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife Irene, investor John “Jock” Whitney, and film editor Hal Kern traveled to Riverside to premiere it at the Fox Theater. Chosen for nine years as the best sports bar in the Inland Empire by Press Enterprise Reader's Choice Awards, Lake Alice offers traditional American food in a fun environment surrounded by televised sports, darts, shuffleboard, pinball, billiards and dancing to live bands at night. Riverside is home to some of the most amazing theatre arts events around. From Christmas celebrations to virtual reality gaming experiences and classic arcade games - there's something for everyone! So come explore all that this vibrant city has to offer.