Find the Rialto Theatre at the 2025 Tucson Festival of Books in Booth 406 March 15-16th on the UA Campus!

The Rialto Theatre, one of Tucson’s enduring cornerstone spaces, is making connections in Tucson like never before. You may have seen our representatives out and about with much more frequency in the community, doing our part to uphold our mission to be a theatre and a haven for every Tucsonan seeking entertainment and a connection with the arts. One of the coolest ways that the Rialto team has been able to connect with our city is through representation in massive community events like the Tucson Festival of Books. We are thrilled to announce that we are heading back to the Tucson Festival of Books for 2025 and we’re bringing some of our favorite amazing people with us to make sure that Tucson knows just what the Rialto has in store for 2025 and beyond.

The Rialto Theatre can be found at this year’s festival in Booth 406 near the Integrated Learning Center on the University of Arizona campus. Just as we did last year, we are showcasing and selling our amazing and locally-produced merchandise from our non-profit gift store El Regalo. Must-have items like the always-popular Jackie Daytona t-shirt, designed by local artist and muralist Danny Martin, prints of our newest mural La Guitarrista by Igancio Garcia, and even Tucson’s own Monopoly board game! You can also find hats, stickers, Tucson Rodeo-themed gifts, and much more at our booth!

Not only will we be selling Rialto Theatre merchandise at our booth to help raise funds for our non-profit venues, we’ll also be providing the Tucson community with fee-free concert tickets*! That’s right — you can grab a whole lot of tickets to our upcoming 2025 concerts both Saturday and Sunday from 12-3 PM at the Rialto Booth 406! That means you skip the online fees and charges and save some money on your next concert experience. Want to preview which shows you’ll want to snag tickets for? Check out the upcoming concert calendar to see who is making their way to the Rialto Theatre and 191 Toole this year!

More than just a board to helm our venues, the Rialto Theatre Foundation is also making their mark on the Tucson Festival of Books this year. Executive Director Cathy Rivers shared that she felt honored to be asked to moderate the panel “Separated at Birth: Adoptee Voices.” Cathy opted to emcee this important and personal conversation with authors Susan Kiyo Ito and Marianne Novy in large part because she herself is an adoptee.

“I am honored to be a moderator for such a vital author event at this year’s Festival of Books. It is important that those speaking on the subject of adoption have hands-on knowledge and personal experience with what it means to be an adoptee or an adoptive parent. Knowing that these authors are putting themselves and their personal experiences with adoption out into the world is a trust that deserves a deeper understanding of the context and challenges we adoptees face.” Cathy Rivers

Moreover, more board members from the Rialto Theatre Foundation will be on-site at the Tucson Festival of Books as volunteers and supporters, including Ryder Hartley. Ryder, who works with the University of Arizona School of Medicine as an EMS educator, shares his personal time giving back to the Tucson community when he’s not teaching the next generation of medical students how to save lives. This year, as he has done many years before, Ryder is assisting authors at the festival. He is also an author himself, and has spent thousands of hours and many late nights working over the last six years to share his own story of struggle, addiction, and survival. His book, Horse, An Existential Journey Through Addiction and Survival, is due to be published in fall 2025. We anticipate seeing him at the 2026 festival as a local author, but for now, he remains a steadfast proponent for and volunteer in the Tucson arts community.

More board members will be helping out at Rialto booth 406 to share information about Rialto Theatre memberships and how anyone can be a Rialto Theatre Foundation superstar supporter. With memberships starting at $50, custom donations, business partnerships, and customizable sponsorships available, our board members are there to share how you can be a Rialto Theatre member. Your support means that the Rialto Theatre Foundation continues our mission as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the stewardship and preservation of the historic Rialto Theatre. As a unique entertainment venue and cornerstone of downtown Tucson, the Rialto offers a broad range of high-quality performing arts and education programs that are reflective of the diverse and vibrant community it serves. We hope you’ll become a part of that legacy. After all, it’s YOUR Rialto.

We’ll see you at the Tucson Festival of Books!

*Rialto ticketing fees still apply to the purchase of tickets at the Tucson Festival of Books. Fee-free ticketing refers to the TicketMaster fees incurred with online ticket purchases for our venues. Our standard per-ticket fee is applied to all ticket purchases at the Tucson Festival of Books.