As long as F1 runs in Las Vegas, so should free downtown festival
In a phone chat a day after shutting down the Neon City Festival, Jeff Victor reported he was lounging on the couch with his 13-year-old, silky terrier Enzo.
The dog is named for Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the iconic Italian luxury sports-car company. This of course is a huge brand and race team in Formula One culture.
But Victor was running a free event counter to the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend. The second NCF roared to the finish line Sunday night. The three days and nights of live performances packed the Fremont Street Experience stages and drew thousands to Downtown Las Vegas Events Center (official attendance figures are yet to be finalized).
Sunday night’s headliners were Fitz and the Tantrums at 3rd Street Stage and Two Friends at DLVEC were Sunday night’s headliners. Deadmau5, Waka Flocka Flame, Good Charlotte, De La Soul and Breaking Benjamin were among the festival’s top acts.
Get used to NCF, on fast acceleration in just two years.
“I think the idea is, as long as F1 is in town, we should keep producing content for visitors and locals alike,” Victor said.
We caught Fitz and the Tantrums at 3rd Street Stage, a popping set on any night, especially Sunday. The FSE crowd sang along and waved on command, while harnessed zip-liners from Slotzilla whizzed past from high above.
The indie-pop duo were among the first to ever play Book & Stage at the Cosmo, for a Vegas fun fact. Far ahead of the concept of fusing sports with entertainment, the venue never had the success it deserved.
Later, to close it out, it was Two Friends at DLVEC, and also some browsing of arts vendors across from the stage.
Victor, who is NCF’s CEO and also vice president of operations of Circa Hospitality Group, attended F1’s inaugural Vegas event in 2023. He and Circa co-owner Derek Stevens came away with the vision for a big, free downtown event that weekend.
“F1, in its first year, was a spectacular event,” Victor said. “F1 deserves a lot of credit for building an amazing facility but as a destination we just didn’t wrap enough things around it. The city didn’t fill up like it could have.”
The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority bought into the idea, for real. The tourism board kicked in a $1 million grant in ‘24 and another $1.5 million this year, matched by Fremont Street Experience hotels under the Neon City Festival LLC umbrella.
That financial boost allowed the event to effectively waive ticket fees (aside from VIP options at 3rd Street Stage and DLVEC). The event infrastructure on FSE and DLVEC is already in place. The result is a perfect festival confluence.
“This kind of festival could cost the better part of $10 million of you had to do it in a flat field,” Victor said. “But because Fremont Street has three stages, and the Events Center has a stage, everything is built-in.”
There’s no need to assemble what is already in place, like bathrooms and perimeter borders. No need for staging equipment to be hauled in, no hanging of speakers, and no ticketing systems.
“We can do it much more economically than normal,” Victor said.
I asked the exec if it’s possible to run this type of event 2-3 times a year, or even quarterly, given its repeat success.
“You know, we haven’t had that conversation,” Victor said. “But you’re the second person that asked me that in the last 24 hours.” Enzo, for one, would bark in approval.
On the topic free and downtown …
Another event that is a home run downtown, Feed The Block Party, is to return next year, with the date to be determined. Weather and planning are primary considerations for the EDM show on the corner of 6th and Fremont Streets (head to El Cortez and you can’t miss it). Originally, producers wanted the next Feed The Block to run alongside F1. That would have created a pileup on Turn 4, to use a racing term.
The back-to-back events on Fremont East around Halloween were a challenge to produce. As with any live-entertainment vehicle (including one staged on the Forest House Art Car from Burning Man), a longer runway makes a better show.
But Ryan Jones of Wynn Nightlife and Ryan Doherty of Corner Bar Management are committed to making Feed the Block, in effect, a resident production on Fremont East. Similar to NCF, it’s an only-in-Vegas phenomenon.
Cool Hang Alert
For those seeking value and top-line musicianship, opportunity knocks — again — with the UNLV Fall Jazz Festival. The event runs three nights, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Ham Hall on the UNLV campus. As always, we endorse the program piloted by UNLV Chair of Jazz And Commercial Music Chair Dave Loeb.
The schedule:
— Monday: Maryland Parkway Jazz Vocal, Contemporary Jazz and Latin Jazz Ensembles featuring Danny de los Reyes in tribute to his late father, Walfredo de los Reyes.
— Tuesday: Jazz Ensemble I in the annual Joe Williams Jazz Scholarship Concert, hosted by legendary comic Pete Barbutti and featuring special guests Clint Holmes, Laura Taylor, Gary Fowler and Melanie Moore.
— Wednesday: Harmon Avenue Jazz Vocal ensemble, Studio Scarlet Jazz Vocal ensemble and Jazz Ensembles II & III.
Tickets are $14.25 at unlv.edu/music/events, $11.75 in-person. A mere pittance. This is also a way to tease my upcoming Neon magazine piece on Danny de los Reyes, a Vegas native and percussionist in the Zac Brown Band. The UNLV music program builds bridges, all the way to Sphere.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
