At Hoover you would've hit one of the currency-exchange stands (for only ArtAbout Bucks can be used within), where attendants gazed out from the cashier window, their chins in their palms. Then you'd cross the first of the festival's three stages, where bands played not in front of crowds but sparse individuals. At Coolidge there was a Sports Pub with plenty of untapped beer, surrounded by empty tables. A children's jump-house stood deserted across the street. Down First, there were two rows of more than a dozen small white tents standing back to back, each with artists displaying their work, smothered in the Southern aromas from a barbecue trailer at the end of the street.
For the artists, it was a retail scene. They said it was a slow day, with little traffic and not many serious perusers. The older crowd passed through in the early hours, and many gravitated to the farmers' market at the south end. The younger crowd arrived at night, just to hang out. At the midway hour—4 p.m.—one photographer said he'd sold about five pieces, one portrait artist said she sold about double that and one canvas painter, suffocating under his own work, wouldn't divulge numbers. There was some legitimate talent there, too. Like Gerina DiMarco.
A beautiful young singer from Venezuela with exceeding charm, who has been in Las Vegas for three years now, Gerina put on a stellar performance. Up on stage, she sang as if she were performing in front of a packed arena. And thus the meager crowd below would've disheartened you a little—if you had been there—but it probably wouldn't have surprised you any.
Because it's still Downtown. At Gass and First, you still have to step over homeless men sleeping next to their shopping carts. There are still vacant lots down Casino Center sullied with trash, apparent abandonment and the lowest form of expression—tagging. Still a crack fiend walking past the tents at 10 in the morning, asking people, "Do you gots any drugsss, maaan?" And still ominous gangs of wolves prowling along the borders of the Arts District at nightfall.
Yet it's admirable that there are people still trying to change that. Which was epitomized by a large sign hung on a fence on the festival's north end, promulgating ArtAbout's noble goal: "The New Downtown Cultural Experience."