Las Vegas’ first Neon City Festival books an array of headliners

Seattle rapper Macklemore, Utah New Wave stalwarts Neon Trees, Australian DJ-Producer Alison Wonderland, country-pop favorite Russell Dickerkson and adventurous EDM DJ/producer Seven Lions are all booked for NCF’s inaugural spectacle.

The first-time event released its lineup Thursday, with a big-reveal show at Fremont Street Experience’s Viva Vision canopy.

The festival runs alongside (but is not affiliated with) F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix on Nov. 22-24. The event is free to all ages; go to neoncityfestival.com for intel. Additional acts and the art/F&B specifics are to be announced.

Wonderland plays the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center stage. There are four stages available, including the three FSE stages used every night for no-cover entertainment. The other performance times and venues are still to be announced.

The event mixes music, art and culinary offerings, and is a partnership of all downtown Las Vegas resorts. Derek Stevens, co-owner of Circa, the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate co-owner, is the event’s creator.

More than vroom-vroom

Stevens emphasizes the simple strategy is to draw the masses by going after folks who want something to do in Las Vegas aside from the F1 race, or who might be in town for the Raiders-Broncos game Nov. 24.

“The key thing is, we wanted to have a broad range of genres,” Stevens said in a phone chat this week. “We wanted to do an open format, because we wanted to provide a little bit of something for everybody. We didn’t want just any one type of music.”

Circa vice president of operations Jeff Victor is the event’s CEO, instrumental in its booking and development. The announced acts all have a link to Las Vegas.

They know us

Macklemore was a special guest of Imagine Dragons at Allegiant Stadium on Sept. 10, 2022. The rap vet also co-headlined in “The Adventures of Kesha and Macklemore” at Mandalay Bay in June 2018. He stopped by the Liberace Garage in Vegas to play one of the mirrored Baldwins days before that show.

Neon Trees drew widespread attention while opening for The Killers on tour in 2008. The venerable rock band from Provo headlined the Downtown Rocks series on FSE’s 1st Street Stage in September ‘23, and played Cosmopolitan in 2014-15.

Wonderland, the accomplished Australian DJ-producer, has played Electric Daisy Carnival from 2022-’24, and Life is Beautiful every year from 2015-2023.

Dickerson, known as an indefatigable live performer, played The Sandbar at Red Rock Resort this past May, and Go Pool Dayclub at Flamingo in 2018.

Reliably adventurous in his live sets, Seven Lions performed at DLVEC in June 2023, and is a recurring EDC headliner.

All downtown is a stage

Neon City Festival covers Fremont Street Experience, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center and the Arts District, spreading to Las Vegas Boulevard at The Strat. “A festival without fences,” as promoters trumpet, the event will include a fireworks show furnished by (who else?) the Plaza.

The opening for the event was created by the inaugural F1 race, which offered no formal entertainment or experience opportunities downtown during race weekend.

“There were many reasons to say the inaugural year of F1 was terrific, or some people might say it was terrible,” Stevens said. “So what we really tried to do is focus on, ‘How can we make that weekend better?’ We felt we could do something that’s an alternative to F1, and give people more of a reason to come downtown on that same weekend.”

Partners aplenty

Stevens initiated talks with his Fremont Street colleagues soon after last November’s race. The group of resort owners, officials and business operators includes Steve Thompson (Boyd Gaming Corporation: Fremont Hotel & Casino, California Hotel Casino, Main Street Station), Terry Caudill (Binion’s Gambling Hall and 4 Queens), Chris Latil (Golden Nugget), Jonathan Jossel (Plaza), Blake Sartini Jr. (The Strat), Andrew Simon (Fremont Street Experience), Joe Woody (El Cortez) and Eric Buksa (Downtown Grand).

That collective then met with Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President CEO Steve Hill to explore options of how to help businesses that were distressed by F1’s takeover last year. The LVCVA pitched in $1 million in sponsorship funding to kick off the event.

“They came back to us with the idea of the Neon City Festival, and doing something different downtown,” Hill said in an interview last month. “We think that makes a lot of sense for them. We also think it makes a lot of sense for the city.”

Hill outlined the financial concerns, and also successes, of F1’s first year.

“The incorrect and unintended consequences last year was an impression that Formula One was going to overwhelm Las Vegas, and a lot of people stayed away unless they were coming to the race,” Hill said. “So it was one of the lowest (hotel room) occupancy weekends of the year, even though it was the best financially performing weekend of ‘23.”

Stevens said about $500,000 in funding to operate NCF is from the Fremont Street Experience partners (which is fueled by SlotZilla zipline revenue, which can be given large credit fueling event costs).

Such non-FSE hotels as the Strat and Plaza have added a “significant amount” of revenue; the Plaza is contributing its $100,000 fireworks spectacular.

Stevens says the event is “scale-able,” and can be modified to demand. He also says it’s “repeatable,” so plan for for NCF action beyond this year.

“We’re very excited about doing something that’s free, that’s great for locals, and for tourists who want to come to town,” said Stevens, who has a knack for staging and promotion. “This is something I think that downtown can do very, very well.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.