Somebody in the Warehouse Arts District decided Florida’s strangest stories deserved their own funhouse, and then actually built it. FloridaRAMA occupies 15,000 square feet inside The Factory St. Pete, where more than 80 artists, most of them local, have filled 20-plus rooms with neon, blacklight, sculpture, sound and even custom scents. The house tagline sums up the ambition pretty well: cooler than a museum, smarter than a theme park, weirder than a carnival.
It opened in September 2021 as Fairgrounds St. Pete, the brainchild of founder Liz Dimmitt, and rebranded to FloridaRAMA in 2024 after passing 150,000 visitors. The concept stayed the same: touch things, poke around, chase clues, and let Florida’s kitschy, humid, slightly unhinged mythology wash over you.
What You’ll Actually See Inside
The single most talked-about space is the spoon room, a shimmering chamber built from thousands of everyday utensils that turns you into the glittering center of a disco ball. It’s the kind of installation that stops people mid-step, and it photographs beautifully from just about any angle.
The Mermaid Star Motel reception desk is the connoisseur’s favorite. It’s a full retro roadside motel lobby packed with Easter eggs, sight gags and small clever details you’ll only catch on a second lap. Plenty of people walk the whole place twice specifically because of rooms like this one.
British fiber artist Lucy Sparrow’s Quick Shop is the showstopper you won’t see coming: an entire convenience store where every single product, more than 13,000 items, is hand-stitched from felt. Cereal boxes, soda bottles, snacks on the shelf, all soft and squishable. It’s absurd, meticulous, and genuinely delightful.
Newer additions keep the place from going stale. In May 2026, St. Pete artist Chad Mize debuted RANDOMIZE, a 360-degree room with its own soundscape and signature scent that he describes as clean but chaotic, alongside three new Mermaidia works by Brigitte Coovert.
Here’s the part worth underlining: the scavenger hunts are what separate a decent visit from a great one. Add-on hunts send you crawling through the rooms searching for clues you’d otherwise breeze right past, and there’s often a neon mini golf component too. If you skip the games entirely, you may find yourself back in the lobby faster than you expected.
Atmosphere & Décor
Everything is indoors, air-conditioned and ADA accessible, which makes this an ideal move on a scorching August afternoon or a rainy afternoon at the beach. The lighting leans hard into neon and blacklight, so the whole space reads retro-futuristic and slightly dreamlike rather than white-walled and hushed.
There’s seating scattered throughout, a small detail that matters more than it sounds. You can actually sit down inside an installation and absorb it instead of shuffling past. The vibe is loose and playful; nobody’s shushing you.
The front of the building is worth knowing about even without a ticket. FloridaRAMA runs a free rotating art gallery plus a café and a free WiFi lounge at the entrance, all open to walk-ins. Daddy Kool Records also shares the campus, and it’s a legitimately good record store that catches a lot of people by happy accident.
Other Considerations
So how’s the price? General admission runs $27 for ages 13 and up and $22 for kids 4 to 12, with under-4s free. Florida residents, students, seniors 65+, military and first responders pay $25. Scavenger hunts and mini golf cost extra. This is the most common gripe you’ll hear: at roughly $30 a head with fees, some people feel the visit ends too quickly. Buying a hunt largely solves that.
How long should I budget? Sixty to ninety minutes is realistic, and folks who take a game and really dig around report closer to two hours. Blow through without stopping and you’ll be out in 30.
Is it good for kids? Roughly ages 4 to 10 is the sweet spot, especially with a scavenger hunt to keep them hunting. Teens can be a tougher sell. There are also Sensory Saturdays on the last Saturday of each month from 10am to noon, included with admission.
What about parking? Easy and free, with lots on Fairfield Ave S and 7th Ave S, plus street parking and bike racks on the Pinellas Trail.
When are they open? Monday and Thursday through Friday from noon to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 8pm, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Last entry is 90 minutes before close, and hours shift for private events, so check before you drive over.
FloridaRAMA
📍 2606 Fairfield Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33712
Website: https://www.floridarama.art
