Tour NewsState TheatreIthaca
Fall at the State: Marcus King, Trampled by Turtles, Punch Brothers, Béla Fleck
Six shows fill the State Theatre calendar from September through December, closing with Béla Fleck on the 98th anniversary of the theatre's opening night.
Aug 20, 2026
ITHACA, N.Y. — The State Theatre of Ithaca has six concerts on its fall calendar, opening with the Marcus King Band on Sunday, September 13 and closing with Béla Fleck on Sunday, December 6.
All six are all-ages shows presented by DSP Shows at the 1,600-seat theatre on West State Street.
The December 6 date is the 98th anniversary, to the day, of the theatre’s opening night in 1928.
The calendar
| Date | Act | Support | Doors | Show |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Sep 13 | Marcus King Band, Darling Blue Tour Pt. 2 | Penelope Road | 7:00 | 8:00 |
| Wed, Sep 16 | Trampled by Turtles | Wild Horses | 6:30 | 7:30 |
| Mon, Nov 9 | Sammy Rae & The Friends | Melt | 7:00 | 8:00 |
| Sat, Nov 14 | Punch Brothers | none listed | 7:00 | 8:00 |
| Fri, Nov 20 | The Wailin' Jennys | none listed | 7:00 | 8:00 |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart | none listed | 6:30 | 7:30 |
Sammy Rae & The Friends is listed at $38.50, on sale since March 25. The theatre does not publish advance prices for the other five; those run through Tixr.
Punch Brothers have partnered with PLUS1, sending $1 from every ticket to organizations working on equity, access and dignity.
A garage that became a theatre
The building went up in 1915, designed by local architect Henry N. Hinckley as an auto garage and Studebaker dealership. Cornell Theatres, Inc., founded by Cornell alumni Lewis Henry and A.F. McCann, bought it in 1926 and hired theatre architect Victor Rigaumont to convert the garage and showroom into a cinema and vaudeville house in Moorish and Renaissance Revival styles.
It opened on December 6, 1928 with Paul Tremaine and his Aristocrats of Modern Music, billed as “21 Peppy, Snappy Entertainers.” Admission was 50 cents.
The balcony was walled off into a second screen in 1976, and the seam is still visible on the ceiling. Demolition was under discussion by the mid-1990s. Historic Ithaca acquired the building on May 5, 1998 and stabilized it, and the State Theatre of Ithaca, Inc., a nonprofit formed for the purpose, bought it in spring 2009 and still owns and operates it.
Seed money from the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival helped fund the removal of the balcony wall. GrassRoots itself grew out of a 1990 AIDS benefit held in this building.
The American Institute of Architects named the theatre one of the 60 most significant architectural landmarks in New York State in 1999, and it was later added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is the last remaining historic performing arts theatre in Tompkins County, and it hosts more than 75 events a year for upwards of 60,000 people a season.
A 2018 accessibility project took the theatre from 5 ADA seats to 12, guided by the Finger Lakes Independence Center.
The full calendar is on the theatre’s site.
The State Theatre of Ithaca, 107 West State Street / Martin Luther King Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Roughly 1,600 seats. Owned and operated by State Theatre of Ithaca, Inc.
Sources: State Theatre events, State Theatre history, Marcus King.
