As year two of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix speeds onto the Strip this November, a new Downtown music and culinary festival seeks to absorb the overflow of locals and tourists.
The Neon City Festival, created by casino mogul Derek Stevens and sponsored by Fremont Street Experience partners and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, will kick off on November 22-24, as a free, non-ticketed alternative to F1.
“I think everybody was kind of taken aback by the disruptive nature of F1, particularly with having to rebuild the roads and the road construction, and the impact it had on both our tourists throughout those six months leading up to it, as well as our locals just going to work,” Stevens says.
He adds that creating an “alternative event to F1” will be “great for everybody,” locals and tourists alike.
“What this is going to do is it's going to fill the unutilized rooms, because F1 just can't fill up Las Vegas. And what this does is it provides another alternative reason to come,” he continues. “We're expecting some very big crowds. I think it’s very innovative in light of [it being] the very first festival without a ticket, the very first festival without a fence.”
Stevens, who owns a stable of Downtown properties including Circa, Golden Gate, The D and the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, says he had the full support of his casino contemporaries when he approached the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority about the fest. Last year’s Formula One race raked in a whopping $1.5 billion in economic impact for the city, but cut many businesses—and locals, he adds—out of the equation. With Neon City Festival, Stevens vies to create a boon for all businesses in the Downtown corridor.
Compared to Life Is Beautiful’s 18-block footprint, Neon City Festival will be an equally large undertaking. As Stevens explains it, we’re going to see activities throughout our city’s urban core, with areas like the Arts District, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, Third Street and Fremont East all being incorporated. The ticketless, fenceless approach might seem a little lawless, but the casino boss reasons that it cuts down on costs, sharing that a fest like Life Is Beautiful could spend seven figures on fencing and security alone.
Neon City Festival’s lineup has yet to be announced, but Stevens says it will cover a wide range of genres and acts will utilize multiple stages throughout the weekend. Other free concerts such as Fremont Street Experience’s Downtown Rocks series have served as a proof of concept for this very model.
“Many times, I go out and introduce the band and some of those times, I ask how many locals are here. It's really overwhelming,” Stevens says. “Locals really come out for music, particularly free music. I think this is going to be a big thing for locals.”
Drawing tourists and occupancy room rates is also key to the festival’s success. And if all goes well, Neon City Festival could become a Downtown staple.
“We're not doing this on a one-off. We're going in with a long-term perspective,” Stevens says. “We think that potentially having a November festival, the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, with great bands, is something that we could grow year over year in Las Vegas. That's certainly the game plan.”
