2022
About The Moon
Opened April 24, 1985
For over 37 years, The Moon has been Tallahassee’s premier variety showcase for entertainment and community events. The Moon was designed for event diversity and flexibility. The Moon is Tallahassee’s Community Arts Center. For 37 years and counting, the Tallahassee community has been involved with and benefited from The Moon.
It is from the SBA SVOG Grant, the SBA EIDL, the Florida SBDC at FAMU, Leon County, and our primary bank The First, that The Moon is able to continue its operations into its 38th year as North Florida’s primary Community Arts Center.
In 1985, it was unheard of to have a concert/nightclub venue switch from country to hip-hop, to jazz, to rock, with banquets and benefits on back-to-back nights. The Moon opened with a pop-rock group The Producers, and within three weeks hosted “non-smoking” Dance Nights, a classical performance by Leonidas Lipovetsky, jazz with Spyro Gyra, country with John Anderson, R&B with The Manhattans, and Big Band by Guy Lombardo. The Moon has not stopped presenting all genres of entertainment and community benefits since.
The Moon has been home to such headliners as Dionne Warwick, Hall & Oats, The Temptations, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, The Judds, Billie Dean, Jimmy Buffet, BB King, George Clinton, Skrillex, T-Pain, Tab Benoit, Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, and Susan Tedeschi, Jeezy, J. Cole, Future, Widespread Panic, Red Hot Chili Peppers, JJ Grey, and Mofro, The Ramones, and hundreds more. Florida State University Student Campus Entertainment has presented over 350 concerts
In addition to our diverse programming of events, hundreds of benefits have been hosted at the Moon, including fundraisers, galas, and events for worthy causes throughout our region. Some of the long-running charitable organizations that have hosted their benefit events at The Moon include; Springtime Tallahassee, Carmen Cummings Sickle Cell Gala, The Pyramid Players, Big Bend Cares, Big Bend Hospice, Alzheimer’s Benefit, City Church services, St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Word of South Festival, Lloyd Music Festival, The Urban League Gala, Capital City Press Skits, Tom Joyner Live Shows, The American Red Cross, Legislative Black Caucus, Habitat for Humanity, Fraternal Order of Police, FAMU Annual Homecoming Alumni Galas, The Governor’s Inaugural Ball and many more.
The Moon was designed, funded, and has been operated by Scott Carswell since 1984 when he arranged for the purchase of a closed A&P Grocery store located at 1105 East Lafayette St. and began development. Since 1988 when Scott and Julie married, the operations have been managed by both as general managers and co-owners.
Since the Covid shut down on March 17, 2020, The Moon has installed a new roof, new floors, new production booth converting from analog to digital, the addition of a TV broadcast suite with fiber-optic lines for live streaming and TV broadcast. All incandescent lighting, over 200 – 1,000 watt par cans, have been removed from the building in favor of LED DMX controllable lighting. This new lighting has resulted in a substantial reduction in use of power required not only to power the lights, but to cool the room. The overall expenditure to date is over $750,000.
