The Crowbar, the last, independently owned, full-time music venue in Ybor City<\/a>, is closing its doors after one final sold-out show. Over the past two decades, it\u2019s launched local talent, hosted nationally known artists like Chappell Roan and Kenny Chesney, and become a staple for music fans across Tampa Bay.<\/p>\nOwner Tom DeGeorge points to the financial hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing competition from large entertainment companies moving into the market as a reason for closing. He says, in the end, it became too difficult for an independent venue to keep up.<\/p>\n
For 20 years, the Crowbar has called Ybor City ‘home.’ Serving as an independent music venue for music lovers of every taste.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the entire music community has looked at this place as home for a long time and it\u2019s hard to let it go,” said DeGeorge. “But at the same time, sometimes you realize that the path forward is necessary. That you have to let things go to properly move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGeorge says the pandemic was a turning point when many places had to close their doors. He says during this time he noticed other small venues moving out. At the same time, he saw development of new venues taking shape and larger entertainment companies expanding. One of those is Live Nation, which has indicated it wants to open a concert venue in Ybor.<\/p>\n
DeGeorge says competition from larger operators, combined with higher costs and the challenges of leasing rather than owning the building, ultimately made his decision to close unavoidable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are getting more expensive in Ybor City and I\u2019ve got a great landlord, but I really want to own my own building. Unfortunately, this place is not for sale and so I realized if I was going to continue forward, this had to let go at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGeorge says this isn\u2019t the end of his involvement in Tampa\u2019s music scene. He plans to continue advocating for independent venues through volunteering with the National Independent Venue Association. He hopes to purchase a building and open a new venue of his own sometime next year.<\/p>\n
As for the final show, it is a sold out. Performing will be Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli for what\u2019s expected to be an emotional show inside the Crowbar.<\/p>\n
DeGeorge did say, unfortunately, a majority of the posters have been wallpapered to the walls so they can\u2019t be removed without destroying them. Some things have been saved digitally, while other memorabilia from the venue will be carefully packed away and stored for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YBOR CITY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Tonight marks the end of an era for a piece of Tampa\u2019s live music scene.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,4069,104,276,115,135,137,136,106,278],"class_list":["post-358882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-calvin-lewis","tag-entertainment","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}