first shared by us<\/a>, of course. We are not, as rumored, omniscient. Some information about the event was shared in an agenda for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).<\/p>\nThe LVCVA will approve $1 million in sponsorship of the Neon City Festival at its meeting on July 9, 2024.<\/p>\n
Details about the festival are a smidge scant at this point, but the LVCVA agenda says, \u201cThe inaugural Neon City Festival will take place over the 2024 Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, November 22-24, 2024, to drive incremental visitation to Downtown Las Vegas. The Neon City Festival will include programming across Fremont Street Experience, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, and the surrounding downtown area. The Neon City Festival will incorporate an eclectic mix of A-list musical talent, local vendors, art installations and exhibits, and a variety of food and beverage outlets from famed Las Vegas venues. The Neon City Festival will be free and open to the public of all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n
That million bucks from the LVCVA should assure the promise of \u201cA-list musical talent\u201d actually is.<\/p>\n
The Neon City Festival will be unique in that it will see all the casinos downtown collaborating on the event. Such events are usually one-offs at specific venues, and casinos not part of the Fremont Street Experience (FSE) are not included or featured (such as with FSE\u2019s free concert series).<\/p>\n
The Strat, El Cortez, Plaza and Downtown Grand aren\u2019t part of the Fremont Street Experience, but they\u2019ll be included in the Neon City Festival, we hear.<\/p>\n
This unprecedented partnership is the result of an unprecedented debacle: F1\u2019s first Las Vegas Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
F1\u2019s first race not only caused months of disruption due to roadwork and construction of grandstands, it financially negatively impacted the vast majority of Las Vegas casinos and innumerable other businesses.<\/p>\n
As criticism of F1 and the LVCVA has grown, downtown leaders had to choose between openly criticizing F1, or creating counter-programming to ensure their hotel rooms weren\u2019t empty again.<\/p>\n
The Neon City Festival is an ingenius solution to a complicated problem. (It\u2019s complicated because four casinos actually made a lot of money during F1, which is the mandate of the LVCVA, to drive business.)<\/p>\n
The fact is, F1 isn\u2019t popular enough to fill Las Vegas on its own, as painful as that might be for F1 to hear.<\/p>\n
The Neon City Festival will be touted as being \u201cadditive\u201d to F1, building on the weekend, rather than competition. If you\u2019re into F1 for whatever reason, have at it. If you\u2019re not, there\u2019s a free festival downtown. The Raiders play the Denver Broncos on Nov. 24, 2024, too, so there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to come, and an announcement of the line-up is sure to make a splash.<\/p>\n
The Neon City Festival should make inroads into quelling some of the F1 hate. Not ours, of course, as we\u2019re still going to be stuck in traffic on The Strip for three months, but possibly for other people.<\/p>\n
We love downtown, and with the creation of the Neon City Festival, now there will be even more to love.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"Scott](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/author-logo-lg-88x88.png\")
<\/a>\n <\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/neon_city_festival1-845x563.jpg\"\/)