This weekend’s grand reopening of Light Nightclub at Mandalay Bay is significant beyond the fact that it’s the final major club venue on the Las Vegas Strip to return after the shutdown of 2020.
The original Light opened at Bellagio in 2001 and became one of the most influential club operations in Vegas history. That spot later turned into the Bank, while Light was resurrected at Mandalay Bay in 2013, originally in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.
Now that Light is ready to shine again—starting with headlining performances from hip-hop legend Wyclef Jean on February 11 and country star Sam Hunt on February 12—its comeback should make a serious impact on the south Strip, where the only big clubs can be found at MGM Grand.
The last time there was a party at Light, there was no Allegiant Stadium nearby hosting events with tens of thousands of people.
“The hotel feels a little different than it did two years ago, and there’s a lot of buzz on that end of the Strip,” says managing partner John Pettei. “With all the sporting events and concerts at Allegiant and being part of that whole campus, the whole area feels really activated.”
A New Yorker and UNLV grad who once bussed tables at Light Bellagio, Pettei admits there have been times, since the pandemic struck Las Vegas, that he wasn’t sure if one of the city’s best-known and most versatile nightclubs would come back to life again.
“I was always positive when asked about opening up again in the hopes that we would, but it was definitely in the back of my mind that it might not [get a chance to] have a final night,” he says. “I almost believed that for a bit there, but I’m really glad we are returning Light to the Strip, and I know a lot of people are happy about it.”
That group includes the staff, which includes many longtime team members, who are excited to work with some “new faces and new blood,” Pettei says.
The club’s clean layout hasn’t changed, but upgrades have been made to lighting and video systems. Light hallmarks, like cool visual content on multiple mega-screens and theatrical performances from dancers, aerialists and other artists, will be back.
The opening-weekend headliners should set the tone for an increasingly diverse musical strategy. “We don’t want to classify Light as synonymous with one particular genre of music,” Pettei says. “It’s a place people know they can come hear top DJs and performers that span many different genres, stuff everyone can connect to and enjoy in some type of way.”
There’s always been something about Light that resonates with clubgoers beyond just another place to party. And Pettei and his team see the reopening as the start of a third life for this seminal Vegas venue.
“I think Light at Bellagio really changed the whole landscape of Las Vegas nightlife, and that was 20 years ago. I connect to that legacy, because I was part of it, and there are some people still in town that worked there or know a lot about it,” Pettei says. “Outside of the name, Light at Mandalay Bay really needs to carve out its own, new legacy with this reopening. That legacy will always be there, but the key word is new, and we want people to understand that.”
LIGHT Friday & Saturday, 10:30 p.m.-4 a.m. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-4700, thelightvegas.com.
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