November 5, 2013 ()
Life is Beautiful Festival and the Revitalisation of Downtown Las Vegas
When I first became aware of the Life is Beautiful Festival taking over downtown Las Vegas in late October, it seemed to have a bit of an identity crises on its hands. During my initial online search I was confused to find that its website gave equal weight to four different elements: music, food, art and learning.
It was undeniable a case of “one of these is not like the other,” as I’ve never seen the word “learning” associated with Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lollapalooza or any other music festival for that matter, though food and art are common elements.
Unlike those well established music festivals, Life is Beautiful had more at stake than showing its thousands of visitors a good time. There was a lot riding on the festival for its backers — largely comprised of Las Vegas based entrepreneurs trying to revitalize the downtown core of America’s fastest growing city, which is overshadowed by the massive hotels and extravagant attractions of the Las Vegas Strip.
The “learning,” element of the festival was thus comprised of a series of guest speakers, many of whom were Las Vegas entrepreneurs themselves.
This particular journey was my 7th visit to Las Vegas in my 25 years (not bad, eh?) and like many festivalgoers of my generation, this was the first time I’ve ever ventured beyond the Strip and into the old downtown core. What I found there was a stark contrast to the fake extravagance of the Las Vegas that I’ve grown sick and tired of over the years, that flashy, shiny and constantly under construction part of the city that has a knack for making it difficult to know what time it is, how much you’ve had to drink that day and how much money you’ve blown through.
Having been to a few music festivals in my day (most notably Bonnaroo and Osheaga) I was thoroughly impressed by how the event was put together for its inaugural year. This was the first festival I’ve been to that took over a city’s downtown core (Lollapalooza 2014 anybody?), 15 square blocks of it to be exact, providing more than enough space for 5 stages, as well as a mobile food-court with all the best cuisine Vegas has to offer. Countless chefs from the Strip’s four star restaurants set up their own mobile locations and while their entrees can get pretty expensive on the Strip, all items at the festival were priced under $10.
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During daylight hours the mountainous terrain of the Nevada desert could be seen towering above the venue’s stages and at night they were replaced by the bright lights of the city’s skyline. A Ferris wheel was also set up behind the two main stages (though ridden by few people) providing an added bit of playfulness to the festival’s vibe.
Though billed as an Indy Rock event, with headliners like The Killers, Kings of Leon and Beck, there was also a little bit of hip-hop/R&B (Childish Gambino, Janelle Monae) and some EDM (Pretty Lights, Big Gigantic), drawing in a very diverse crowd (it’s not every day you see a young girl from California with flowers in her hair dancing with a cowboy from Arizona). As I learned from a native Las Vegan who took a seat across from me on a picnic bench, a few of the performers, including The Killers and Imagine Dragons, are fellow natives and hometown favourites (The Killers even performed a rendition of Elvis’ Vivas Las Vegas).
Being from Las Vegas afforded Imagine Dragons the opportunity to incorporate one of the city’s main attractions, Canada’s very own Cirque du Soliel, into their performance. The circus act also showcased a few of their own performances, giving festivalgoers an opportunity to glimpse 10-20 minutes worth of some of their most popular shows like “O”, Michael Jackson’s “One” and The Beatles’ “Love,” among others. While a ticket to any of these shows at their home theatres on the Strip would cost hundreds, the shows were included with the reasonably priced festival pass ($159 USD for both days).
The festival didn’t sell out, which meant lines were short and the front of each stage was easy to reach, but despite weaker than expected ticket sales I believe that organisers should still consider the event a success.
Looking back on the weekend it was probably the most fun and least amount of money I’ve ever spent during a weekend in Las Vegas. I therefore intend on coming back to the Life is Beautiful festival next year, with a few more friends in tow, and for the first time in the many visits I’ve made to sin city, I’ll be booking a room off the Strip, in the old downtown Las Vegas.