Crystal Ballroom

Copies of Vortex Music Magazine are available in Ringlers Pub, the bar on the ground floor, by the door just around the corner from the ballroom's box office.

Owner's Statement

Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2014, the Crystal Ballroom is indisputably the centerpiece of the McMenamins music empire in Oregon. Perched on the third floor of an old brick building originally called Cotillion Hall, the historic structure occupies prime real estate on West Burnside, while upstairs the spring-loaded ballroom floor bouncingly hosts thousands of concertgoers at 150 gigs annually. A litany of genre-spanning legends have shared this stage, from Little Richard and James Brown, to the Grateful Dead and Buffalo Springfield, to the OG funkateer George Clinton and surf pioneer Dick Dale, to contemporary acts like blues-tinged rockers The Black Keys and electronic dance purveyor Pretty Lights as well as homegrown Portland talent aplenty, including The Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, Pink Martini and The Dandy Warhols. Although the air may be thick with sweaty bodies on a rowdy show night, take a moment to admire your surroundings: Ornate glass chandeliers hang overhead, hand-painted murals adorn the walls, and carved, cackling jokers top the colonnades. And when the floating dance floor starts to quiver, just go with the flow and pogo in unison to the beat because the floor will respond like a hardwood trampoline. If the lights come up too soon, grab a pint of house-brewed beer in Lola’s Room, the dance floor below the ballroom, before continuing on to the ground floor Ringlers (named for first owner of the ballroom) for some pub grub—or just stumble a few steps further east to the subterranean speakeasy of Al's Den. On any night, anything can happen!