Teatro Mella

Located in the Vedado district on Linea at Calle A, the Mella opened in 1952 as the Rodi Cinema.  The 1,700-seat Art Deco theatre was renamed after the revolution, in April 1961, for a martyred Cuban communist, Julio Antonio Mella, who in 1929 was assassinated in Mexico trying to organize the overthrow of the Cuban government of General Gerardo Machado.  Since 1979 the theatre has been at the centre of the annual Havana Jazz Festival.

Blondie, one of America's most iconic bands and a pioneer in America's new wave and punk scene of the 1970's, will be performing two shows at the Mella in March in what’s described as a cultural exchange – a policy President Obama created with his opening toward Cuba in 2016.